The National Weather Service in Pendleton is reconfiguring fire weather zones in central and northeast Oregon.
The changes are tentatively set for March 18, 2025.
The changes will affect central and north central Oregon, the east slopes of the Oregon Cascades, the eastern Columbia River Gorge of Oregon, the Lower Columbia Basin of Oregon, the Blue Mountains, Grande Ronde, John Day Valleys, Wallowa County, and a portion of the Burns District. No changes will be made to the eastern Washington fire weather zones.
In 2022, fire weather zones across eastern Washington were reconfigured to match the Fire Danger Rating Areas (FDRAs) at the request of a working interagency group. Fire Danger Rating Areas are based on an analysis of the components of fire danger: vegetation, climate and topography. Multiple agencies that cover eastern Oregon requested the same boundary changes based on the success of the Eastern Washington fire weather zone changes. The weather service said aligning the Fire Weather Zones with the FDRAs will simplify relevant information and reduce the confusion across differing boundaries and among fire management personnel.
A survey was sent to the fire weather partners in October 2023, and a majority of the responses were in favor of the alignment to match fire weather zones with the fire danger rating areas. In January 2024, a video conference was held discussing the initial proposal of the new fire weather zones. Since the conference call, there have been multiple collaboration emails with various agencies. The weather service said support was given for the fire zones that cover central and northeast Oregon.
For more information, contact Mary Wister, NWS Pendleton Fire Weather program leader, at 541-276-8134 or mary.wister@noaa.gov.
