6 days Ago
For a few weeks this summer, Central Oregonians did not breathe easily. Wildfires near and far left Bend and neighboring cities cloaked in brown air, a scenario that has become unsettlingly familiar in recent years. The poor air came in waves as smoke descended on the region, then was cleared out by a weather pattern, only to return days later.
For those keeping a tally of the poor air quality days, the numbers are in: Bend recorded 14 days of air quality in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or worse category this year, according to preliminary data compiled by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The poor air came amid one of the most explosive wildfire seasons in state history — nearly 2 million acres burned in Oregon. Much of that forest devastation occurred in Eastern Oregon, where the Durkee Fire alone burned nearly 300,000 acres.
Prevailing winds typically carry smoke east so Boise and other Idaho cities spent much of their summer shrouded in smoke . The source of smoke for areas along the U.S.
Highway 97 corridor was mainly from fires west of the Cascades and in the Deschutes National Forest. While 14 days of poor air quality sounds like a lot, it was down from a year ago, when Bend experienced 21 days of unhealthy air , a record-high number. Despite the dip compared to a year ago, the trend for smoky days continues to rise.
Over the past five years, Bend has experienced 70 days of unhealthy air quality. The previous five-year period, 2015 to 2019, had just 25 unhealthy air quality days. Ten of this year’s poor air days were in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups category” and four were in the “unhealthy” category.
Severely unhealthy air did not settle long enough in Bend to record a full day in the “very unhealthy” or “hazardous” categories. But there were portions of days that saw spikes in the air quality index into very unhealthy levels. The air quality index, developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, is a measure of concentrations in the air of particulate matter 2.
5 micrometers or less in diameter — particles of this size are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Unhealthy air threatens human health and is of particular concern for children, the elderly, pregnant women and fetuses. When levels increase to unhealthy levels, residents are advised to stay indoors.
Bend experienced two separate bouts of poor air quality in 2024. The first extended smoke event occurred in late July , mainly from fires west of Bend in the Willamette National Forest. A second period of poor air in mid-September covered Bend with smoke and ash from the Little Lava Fire in the Deschutes National Forest.
The worst air occurred on the early morning of Sept. 13 when the air quality index reached 257 before declining back to double digits within a couple of hours. While both periods proved challenging for Central Oregon residents, Bend has experienced worse smoke events in previous years.
Hazardous air quality events in 2020 and 2021 shut down concerts and kept Bend residents indoors for days. Chris Varley, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, said various factors helped Bend escape major smoke events this year, despite the record number of acres burned in Oregon. “The majority of 2024 wildfires occurred east of the Cascade Range and weather, and wind patterns pushed smoke to the eastern side of the state, away from many populated areas that have experienced smoke in recent years,” said Varley.
If there was a city hit particularly hard this year, it was Burns. The seat of Harney County experienced 26 days of unhealthy air from wildfire smoke — 16 in the “unhealthy” category and four in the “very unhealthy” category. Other hard-hit areas included John Day (18 unhealthy days), La Pine (15 unhealthy days), Crater Lake (14 unhealthy days) and Oakridge (11 unhealthy days).
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