WEATHER
East Oregonian
Page 2A
REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
SATURDAY
TODAY
A t-storm in spots
in the p.m.
Hazy sunshine
85° 62°
82° 56°
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Pleasant with
partial sunshine
Mostly sunny
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
77° 50°
84° 54°
87° 54°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
84° 55°
88° 65°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
85°
81°
100° (1932)
62°
52°
32° (1910)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.00"
0.11"
11.37"
7.69"
8.49"
through 3 p.m. yesterday
HIGH
LOW
84°
82°
101° (1955)
59°
51°
32° (1929)
0.00"
0.00"
0.08"
6.65"
5.40"
6.20"
SUN AND MOON
Sep 12
Sep 19
First
6:25 a.m.
7:20 p.m.
8:54 p.m.
8:57 a.m.
Full
Sep 27
Oct 5
John Day
86/57
Ontario
89/58
Bend
79/50
Burns
84/46
Caldwell
89/62
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
67
86
79
68
84
85
75
83
88
86
79
85
81
77
64
66
89
87
85
75
81
76
83
84
75
84
87
Lo
52
51
50
56
46
55
54
60
65
57
45
56
52
57
52
53
58
59
62
58
47
57
60
52
56
65
56
W
c
pc
pc
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
c
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Sat.
Hi
65
84
78
69
85
81
73
80
84
84
80
82
78
80
63
67
88
83
82
72
79
72
77
79
69
81
80
Lo
51
45
46
58
44
50
52
54
55
51
45
49
46
54
51
53
57
48
56
57
43
54
51
47
57
58
49
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
89
89
88
65
69
58
66
79
83
68
80
Lo
68
79
69
50
56
46
52
61
64
49
68
W
pc
c
s
r
pc
c
c
pc
pc
s
r
Sat.
Hi
87
88
89
64
63
62
65
78
83
66
81
Lo
69
81
69
49
54
51
49
68
66
49
70
W
c
t
s
t
t
c
t
s
pc
s
pc
WINDS
Medford
77/57
PRECIPITATION
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Last
New
Albany
76/55
Eugene
75/54
TEMPERATURE
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
89° 51°
Spokane
Wenatchee
83/60
83/61
Tacoma
Moses
73/51
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 87/60
82/58
67/54
73/50
87/56
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
74/54
84/65 Lewiston
89/64
Astoria
86/62
67/52
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
75/58
Pendleton 85/55
The Dalles 88/65
85/62
82/61
La Grande
Salem
85/56
76/57
Corvallis
75/53
HERMISTON
Yesterday
Normals
Records
85° 51°
Seattle
73/56
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
80° 48°
Today
TUESDAY
Sunny and
delightful
Friday, September 8, 2017
(in mph)
Boardman
Pendleton
Klamath Falls
79/45
REGIONAL FORECAST
Eastern and Central Oregon: A shower or
thunderstorm in spots today, except dry
near the Cascades.
Western Washington: Mostly cloudy today
with a shower in places. Partly cloudy
tonight.
Eastern Washington: Smoky today with
hazy sunshine; a shower or thunderstorm in
spots in the north.
Cascades: Smoky today with intervals of
clouds and sunshine. Clear to partly cloudy
tonight.
Northern California: Sun and clouds today;
a thunderstorm in spots in the interior
mountains.
Saturday
WSW 8-16
W 8-16
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Coastal Oregon: Cloudy most of the time
today; a shower in spots across the north.
Today
WSW 8-16
W 7-14
1
3
5
5
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East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday
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Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to
East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
1
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
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-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Another cool and damp day is in store for the Northeast today while
the central and southern United States enjoy a sunny end to the week. Storms in the
Rockies will do little to squelch wildfires in the West.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 106° in Needles, Calif.
Low 28° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
88
79
75
74
89
79
90
75
83
74
67
67
87
88
66
92
64
71
88
86
78
83
83
91
81
82
Lo
63
60
56
52
61
59
64
56
64
51
52
54
65
58
47
66
40
51
76
64
55
73
60
72
59
64
W
pc
s
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
sh
s
pc
c
s
c
s
pc
s
pc
s
s
pc
s
pc
Sat.
Hi
87
79
72
71
92
81
85
69
79
72
70
67
87
90
66
91
62
77
88
87
74
81
83
85
81
83
Lo
62
61
56
51
63
60
59
56
65
49
50
48
65
60
47
65
42
60
75
66
50
72
62
72
59
66
Today
W
pc
s
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
c
s
pc
s
s
t
s
t
s
pc
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
79
80
93
65
69
78
84
73
84
86
74
96
72
75
79
84
83
86
83
93
77
72
73
92
75
87
Lo
57
60
81
53
51
56
69
56
59
61
56
77
52
54
55
55
54
59
61
68
68
61
56
71
58
61
W
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
s
t
pc
pc
c
t
pc
s
Sat.
Hi
75
82
88
66
73
81
86
69
84
86
72
96
69
72
77
87
83
89
81
86
78
74
65
91
73
86
Lo
53
60
78
53
59
54
71
55
60
66
55
79
51
53
54
56
56
61
60
63
68
61
57
69
56
62
W
s
s
r
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
pc
pc
t
pc
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
pc
c
t
s
pc
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
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SEASON: Nine firefighters have died and 35 have been injured this year
Continued from 1A
A snowy winter across
much of the West raised
hopes that 2017 wouldn’t
be a dried-out, fire-prone
year, but a hot, dry summer
spoiled that.
Here’s what happened,
and how bad things are:
How did we get here?
Heavy snows last winter
brought relief from a long,
brutal drought across much
of the West and produced
a lush growth of natural
grasses — thicker and
taller than many vegetation
experts had ever seen. But
the weather turned very hot
very fast in the spring, and
the snow melted much faster
than expected.
All the grass that grew
high dried out, and so did
forests at higher elevations,
leaving plenty of fuel for
wildfires, said Bryan Henry,
a manager at the National
Interagency Fire Center,
which coordinates wild-
fire-fighting.
Summer lightning storms
then dumped less rain than
usual and weather condi-
tions kept the humidity low,
creating a natural tinderbox
in many states.
“It was kind of a bad
combination of things,”
Henry said.
How big are the fires?
By Thursday, more than
76 large fires were burning
in nine Western states —
including 21 in Montana and
18 in Oregon, according to
the interagency fire center.
So far this year, wildfires
have burned more than
12,500 square miles nation-
wide. In the past decade,
AP Photo/Randy L. Rasmussen
Pedestrians walk off the Bridge of the Gods, which spans the Columbia River
between Washington and Oregon states, as smoke from the Eagle Creek wildfire
obscures the Oregon hills in the background near Stevenson, Wash., Wednesday.
only two years were worse
at this point in the wildfire
season: 2015 and 2012.
For all of 2015, a record
15,800 square miles burned.
In 2012, 14,600 square miles
were scorched.
What about climate
change?
It’s making things worse
for fires, said Jonathan
Overpeck, dean of the
School for Environment and
Sustainability at the Univer-
sity of Michigan.
Hotter and drier weather
is a symptom of human-
caused climate change, and
that’s making fires worse
by leaving forests and other
vegetation more flammable.
“It’s not of course playing
the only role,” he said.
“There’s natural variability
at work.”
“Humans are contributing
to an ever-increasing degree
to wildfires in the West as
they emit greenhouse gases
and warm the planet and
warm the West,” Overpeck
said.
Tree-eating beetles
Two dozen species of
beetles have killed trees on
nearly 85,000 square miles
in the Western U.S. since
2000. They’re responsible
for about 20 percent of
the 6.3 billion standing
dead trees across the West,
according to the U.S. Forest
Service.
Researchers
disagree
on whether forests with
beetle-killed trees are more
likely to burn, or if they burn
differently, than healthier
forests.
Any
standing
dead
tree — whether killed by
beetles, drought, lightning
or other causes — can crash
down, posing hazards for
firefighters who must adjust
their tactics to avoid them.
Who’s fighting the fires?
More than 26,000 people
are fighting the fires, backed
by more than 200 helicop-
ters, 1,800 trucks and 28 air
tankers dropping water and
fire-retardant slurry. Three
of those tankers are military
C-130 planes.
The military has also
assigned
surveillance
aircraft and at least 200
active-duty soldiers to fight
fires and the National Guard
has been called out in at
least four states — Cali-
fornia Montana, Oregon and
Washington.
“We’re stretched thin,”
Wyden, Merkley block Bounds from U.S. Circuit Court
By NICK BUDNICK
Portland Tribune
Oregon’s two Democratic U.S.
Senators on Thursday informed the
White House they won’t approve
President Donald Trump’s nomination
of federal prosecutor Ryan Bounds
to sit on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals until he goes through a bipar-
tisan review process — essentially
vowing to block consideration of
Bounds until they give their OK.
In a Sept. 7 letter to White House
Counsel Don McGahn, Senators Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley noted that
they had asked the Trump lawyer to
direct names of all potential nominees
to a committee they were setting up
with Walden, one that they said was
in keeping with “Oregon’s long bipar-
tisan tradition of working together to
identify the most qualified candidates
for judicial vacancies.”
But on Thursday morning the Trump
administration announced the nomina-
tion of Hermiston native Bounds for the
powerful appeals court position along
with several other nominees around the
country — sparking the two Senators to
communicate their displeasure.
Wyden and Merkley said they
would not provide what are known as
“blue slips” approving consideration
of Bounds or other judicial nominees
until they go through a process that the
letter says was described to the White
House in May.
Blue slips are a Senate protocol
providing the two Senators from each
state what amounts to veto power over
judicial nominees from their state.
“Unfortunately it is now apparent
that you never intended to allow our
longstanding process to play out.
Instead, you have demonstrated that
you were only interested in our input
if we were willing to preapprove
your preferred nominees,” Wyden
and Merkley wrote. “Disregarding
this Oregon tradition returns us to the
days of nepotism and patronage that
harmed our courts and placed unfit
judges on the bench.”
said Jennifer Jones, a
spokeswoman for the inter-
agency fire center.
Sometimes the center
gets requests for more crews
and equipment than it has,
so “fire managers on the
ground are adjusting their
tactics and strategies to
accommodate the resources
they can get,” Jones said.
“We don’t pack up our
tents and go home,” she
said.
How bad are the losses?
Nine firefighters have
died and 35 have been
injured this year, according
to the national Wildland Fire
Lessons Learned Center.
Two of the deaths came
during training.
Fires have destroyed an
estimated 500 single-family
homes and 32 commercial
buildings this year, the inter-
agency fire center said.
Janet Ruiz of the Insur-
ance Information Institute
sees a hopeful trend in
fewer houses lost to wild-
fires in recent years. Ruiz
credits better-equipped fire-
fighters and homeowners
who take steps to minimize
the danger such as clearing
trees away from buildings
and installing screens over
dwelling openings to keep
embers out.
“It’s a better-informed
public and fire services
better able to fight fire,” she
said.
What about the smoke?
“It’s unusually bad,”
said Henry, of the National
Interagency Fire Center.
Smoke is lingering from
northern California and
central Nevada to Montana.
The air over parts of northern
Corrections
The Tuesday article “Initiative
process puts law in hands of
people” incorrectly stated the
number of people on the Joint
Interim Committee on Refer-
endum 301. It is two Democrats
and one Republican from both the
Senate and the House, for a total
of six. The article also mis-char-
acterized the 25-word statements
on the ballot title as “for” or
“against.” The statements explain
the result of a yes vote or no vote.
The East Oregonian works hard
to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice
a mistake in the paper, please
call 541-966-0818.
California, Idaho, Montana,
Oregon and Washington is
rated very unhealthy on the
U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency’s AirNow
website. It was not clear
whether sources other than
fires were contributing.
The air over the towns
of Cottonwood and Port-
hill, Idaho, were listed as
hazardous, the worst of six
categories.
Fires spew particulates
into the air, which are linked
to premature death and
cancer and can make asthma
and chronic lung disease
worse, said Dr. Norman H.
Edelman, a senior science
adviser to the American
Lung Association.
“It certainly is bad
enough to cause symptoms
in people with chronic lung
disease but also normal
people,” he said.
How much has it cost?
Federal spending to fight
fires appears to be headed
for a record.
The two main firefighting
agencies, the U.S. Forest
Service and the U.S. Depart-
ment of Interior, report
spending of more than $2.1
billion so far. That’s about
the same as they spent in all
of 2015, the most expensive
wildfire season on record.
Those figures do not
include individual state
spending, which no single
agency compiles. Montana
has spent $50 million,
exhausting its firefighting
reserve fund in just over a
month. Oregon has spent
$28 million, but the state
expects to be reimbursed for
part of that by the federal
government and others.
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