Hot & Hazy

[00:00:00]Now, Storm Alert Weather [music] 12 on NewsWatch 12.

[00:00:05]>> Well, good morning everybody. I'm meteorologist Scott Elnes. I want to start by just kind of telling everybody today is a very high risk for fire danger day. I want to get that right out of the right out of the gate. We have yesterday triple digits. We're going back into them again. I believe that'll be the third day in a row and boy the red flag warnings are abundant. Not only in Southern Oregon, but into Central and Eastern Oregon as well. A fire weather watch for portions of Siskiyou County.

[00:00:29]We've got dry air. We've got some humidity that's going to clash with it and we've already got fires out there including an air quality alert until about 2:00 this afternoon. The sad part is is that the East Evans Creek fire, we're starting to see a reduction in the air quality, but today we might get a lot more fire starting to push out. If we don't, we're going to see some nice clearing skies out us, but we've got several elements at work here.

[00:00:52]Around our area, really kind of quiet.

[00:00:54]We're seeing some little uh showers pushing up around the Willamette Valley, but we've got some monsoonal moisture here. And then over off the coast, we've got the remnants of a tropical storm, which is bringing up some moisture moisture over here, moisture over here, drier here and winds coming right up. So, this is a almost kind of a perfect storm situation.

[00:01:12]Mid-60s to start your day in Klamath Falls, 70s in the Medford for uh at this hour. Some nice calm winds, but boy the winds are going to be ramping up today particularly around some of that channel terrain. So, red flag warning pretty much across the board. These gusty winds are going to be noticeable and we bring in this moisture that brings in the potential for lightning with the dry fuels. This is going to be a very interesting day, folks. Let's put the wind gust forecast into motion. As you can see, bam, we're well into the 20 to 25 mph winds. Higher around some of the areas where that terrain funnels it.

[00:01:44]The good news is tomorrow it's not quite as bad. Still going to see some gusty winds, but we're getting back towards normal. So, today is the day you don't want to underestimate what could roll out today. Let's put your future cast into motion. Kind of give you the basics. We're here 7:00 mid 70s.

[00:01:59]This marine layer is going to be a substantial thing, but there's that potential for thunderstorms right around mid-afternoon. That's going to linger into portions of the evening. Now, that's not into the Rogue Valley, but it could do fire starts into Lake County, uh Klamath County, etc. And then we get into Central and Eastern Oregon, and that's where it's even worse, and that's it's going to be even more substantial up there. So, we're we're certainly not dodging a bullet, but it's it's not going to be as bad as towards Bend and uh Burns, etc. Triple digits expected yet again today, and then mid-60s to start off your day tomorrow. So, here we go, folks. Let's go around the horn talk about what you can expect. In the Northern California, Siskiyou County under a fire weather watch, temperatures into those 90s pretty much staying across the board.

[00:02:40]Air quality might come down if we don't get a bunch of starts coming out of uh today. Cascade Mountains not bad, could still see a an isolated thunderstorm out there.

[00:02:51]I think they'll be mainly towards the Sierras and then kind of the middle Cascades, so we're not quite as bad around our area, but watch for some uh marine layer issues out to the coast.

[00:03:00]It's just going to be a little bit cloudy and there's a little bit of rain out there. Klamath Basin not bad if it wasn't for the winds that are ramping up today and those dry fuels. So, not bad temperature-wise, but today Klamath Basin, Lake County, Rogue Valley, everybody's got to be on high alert today because it just won't take much. We are living in a tinderbox.

[00:03:19]We're going to throw in some winds, and then you throw in heat and humidity into the mix, and it's going to get interesting. So, careful out there today. Good news is as we roll towards the weekend, we're heading back towards normal.