BEND, OR -- Much of the state is experiencing cooler temperatures and some areas have seen a little moisture. But, "Fire season is far from over," says Carol Connolly, at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, "Currently, we still have 20 large active fires in the state of Oregon."

Connolly tells us, "We just took five large fires off the board over the last 24 hours. Four of those were in Oregon and one was in the state of Washington. So, great progress is being made." However, 500,000 acres of Oregon are still actively burning. And, of the 20,000 wildland firefighters deployed around the country right now, almost 8,000 are in our state. 

"This is a time of year we get East Winds. So, that east wind effect and that threat still remains," says Connolly, "All it would take, according to our fire weather meteorologists, is a few days, if not about a week of warming in certain parts of the west side of the Cascade mountains, all the way into eastern Oregon." She adds, "If those warmer, dryer conditions come to the west side of the Cascades, and that starts to dry out things and we do get an ignition, the chance of a large catastrophic fire isn't there. But that doesn't mean that our existing fires can't grow."

In Central Oregon, the Highway 97 corridor is especially susceptible to human-starts, like an ignition from a vehicle, "It wouldn't take long for the fuels in that area to dry out over a few, couple of days. And, as we know, that corridor can go from rangeland, to grass, to some isolated timber pockets."

In total, the state lost a record 1.9-million acres to wildfire this season. Connolly was asked what we need to finally close out this unprecedented season, "A season ending event for 2024 would be a lot of rain. A lot of cool conditions, rain."