OSU report – The changing climate is having a significant impact on Oregon, a new report concludes, with the state growing progressively warmer, experiencing more severe wildfires, and undergoing a shift of seasons resulting in less snowpack and lower summer stream flows. The impacts of these changes are becoming significant, researchers say. “Simply put, the state’s biggest fire years occur when summers are unusually warm and dry,” said Philip Mote, former director of Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) and a co-author on the report. “Since warm and dry summers are occurring more frequently, we can expect the fire danger to increase as well. At the same time, our hydrology is changing – starting with shrinking snowpack, which in many basins poses a dual threat of increasing flood risk in the winter and resulting in lower soil moisture and stream flows in the summer.” Last year was much drier than normal and 11 Oregon counties received an emergency drought declaration. A plethora of wildfires in the western United States in August of 2018 caused Portland and the Willamette Valley to experience some of the worst air quality on the planet. Ranchers in southern and eastern Oregon reported significant economic losses from the lack of water. These results likely are the new norm and not anomalies, say authors of the fourth Oregon Climate Assessment Report, a synthesis of peer-reviewed scientific studies over the past two years. The legislatively mandated report was produced by OCCRI.
