News release from the Oregon Dept. of Forestry. A high pressure system is forecast for the southern Oregon area, with high temps, dry weather and slight chance of thunderstorms. The National Weather Service is calling for a hot and dry air mass to settle back into the Willamette Valley and Portland areas through the end of the work week; a Red Flag warning for thunderstorms is in effect for NE Oregon. As the 4th of July holiday approaches, fire officials also want to remind everyone that possession or use of fireworks on private, state, Forest Service and BLM land is illegal. The lightning-caused Buckskin Fire (USFS) reported June 11 burning 10 miles SW of Cave Junction on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is 5,345 acres and 60 percent contained. More info available at: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4286/ Fire statistics are for the current year for the 16 million acres of private and public forestland protected by the Oregon Department of Forestry. January 1, 2015, through today: Lightning-caused fires: 74 fires burned 114 acres; Human-caused fires: 233 fires burned 531 acres; Total: 313 fires burned 645 acres.
