Weather Watch

This last week we were noticing how dry things are starting to get around here. The fire danger system that is in place had us at a level 2 in this area, fire protection in place (water truck, extinguishers, shovels, etc), 1 pm shut down and two hour fire watch after last piece of equipment is shut down. But Saturday, email blasts started coming from the District Forester Mike Cafferata,

There was a recent change in the weather which is causing us to increase our restrictions and should be a concern for the forest community.  This morning during the NWS weather briefing they called for a potential historic east wind event for Monday into Tuesday. The forecast is below. Worst case scenario is we could see east winds in the 40-60 mph range. As weather is, this is highly variable and could change as we all know. Even so, we need to plan for this scenario to ensure we are prepared. Tuesday we could see temps along the coast in the 90’s with RH’s in the mid to upper teens. With this we will be moving NW-1 to an IFPL3 effective this Monday, September 7^th @ 0100. Public Use Restrictions are also moving to Extreme in NW3, NW2, and NW1.

(RH stands for relative humidity. In our area we are blessed with the Pacific Ocean that tends to keep our RH high. During an east wind the dry air of inland is flowing toward the ocean and drying out plants and soil.)

This  weather event changes what we do as a farm and as land owners. Our area along with the rest of the Pacific Northwest is on alert. Moving from the level 2 to level 3 for us means we will not be working in the woods at all, no saws and no equipment. If we do any work in the landing at all, everything will be shut  down before 1pm with a three hour fire watch. And it is not just those who work in the woods or own land, the public is also included in the restrictions,

We are asking visitors to leave the Tillamook State Forest by Noon on Monday, and are closing gates where we have them. State Forest staff are patrolling the forest, educating visitors, checking fire equipment, and encouraging visitors to head home until the event has passed.

After our many emails on Saturday, I was happy to see that social media has also begun passing along the information to keep our woods safe. We will be keeping an eye on this weather event closely while getting the stories of last week to you daily.