Active Weather
Weather is the quiet part of this region's morning. The National Weather Service public alert feed, read at about 1 AM Eastern, counts one active land alert in Oregon and none in Washington, Idaho, or Alaska. Alaska carries a large number of marine zone alerts, which are relevant to anyone working on the water and not to households ashore.
The Storm Prediction Center's overnight outlook, issued at 7:40 PM Central Sunday, draws no severe thunderstorm risk area in the Northwest. Its discussion does note a Pacific Northwest upper low as the feature driving storms further east into Montana, which is the kind of detail that explains why a quiet forecast here produces an active one there.
The Weather Prediction Center's excessive rainfall discussion, issued at 12:58 AM Eastern today, places no risk area over Oregon, Washington, Idaho, or Alaska for today or tomorrow.
Infrastructure
Fire is the region's live issue, and the containment numbers are mostly encouraging. From the National Interagency Fire Center situation report dated Sunday September 6 at 7:30 AM Mountain time:
In Oregon, the Rowe Creek Complex stands at 373,927 acres and 99 percent containment with 33 structures threatened, the Big Grass fire at 578,637 acres and 94 percent containment, the Grasshopper fire at 93,993 acres and 91 percent containment with 33 structures, the Hagen fire at 61,396 acres and 56 percent containment, and the McCully fire at 13,564 acres and 25 percent containment with one structure threatened and evacuations in place.
In Washington, the Little Giant fire is at 171,163 acres and 81 percent containment with 40 structures, and the Sinlahekin fire at 166,114 acres and 52 percent containment with 30 structures.
The pattern across those seven is a season winding down rather than building. Five of the seven are above fifty percent contained and three are above ninety. The two that still ask something of nearby households are McCully in Oregon at twenty-five percent with active evacuations, and Sinlahekin in Washington at fifty-two percent.
The national wildfire preparedness level is 4 on a five-step scale, according to the National Interagency Fire Center situation report dated Sunday September 6 at 7:30 AM Mountain time. That report counts 75 uncontained large fires nationally, with 53,165 fires and 8,302,657 acres burned so far this year, running at 125 percent and 158 percent of the ten-year average.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's declarations page could not be read this run, so this brief reports no change either way on open declarations or fire management assistance grants.
Public Health
The national AirNow site carries a standing notice this morning that wildfire smoke is affecting air quality in multiple states, and with seven large fires burning in Oregon and Washington this region is among the likelier places for that to be true. Specific readings were not obtained this run. The Fire and Smoke Map at fire.airnow.gov gives a current number for your address, which is more useful than any regional statement.
No boil-water advisories were identified across the four states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Alert Network archive could not be read this run, so this brief makes no claim about national health advisories in either direction.
Watch Item
The seismic item is worth reporting plainly, because it is the kind that gets amplified elsewhere. An earthquake sequence has been underway in the Aleutians near Nikolski, Alaska since Saturday. The United States Geological Survey event feed lists a magnitude 6.3 on September 5 at 21:17 Universal Time as the largest, followed by a magnitude 5.5, a magnitude 5.3, a magnitude 4.9, and several additional events between magnitude 4.5 and 5.2 through September 6. Nikolski is a small community on Umnak Island, and this is a sequence in a seismically ordinary place for one.
Separately, an earthquake occurred off the coast of Oregon overnight. The National Tsunami Warning Center reports it at magnitude 4.6 with an origin time of 01:30 Universal Time today, and states that it produced a tsunami information statement only.
The status line that matters: as of this writing the National Tsunami Warning Center states there is no tsunami warning, advisory, watch, or threat in effect for the United States or Canada. An information statement is the lowest product it issues. It means an earthquake happened and the center looked at it, not that anything is expected.
The durable version of this for coastal households is that the Cascadia subduction zone does not give a warning window the way a hurricane does. The natural warning is the shaking itself, and the response to strong or long shaking near the coast is to move inland or uphill without waiting for an official message. Knowing your own route on an ordinary Monday is the entire preparation, and it takes one walk.
On fire, the number to keep an eye on this week is McCully's containment. Twenty-five percent with active evacuations is a fire still being fought at the edge. Households under evacuation guidance should treat that guidance as current until the agency says otherwise rather than reading a quiet weather forecast as an all-clear.
Seasonally, the Northwest is at the point where the fire outlook and the rain outlook trade places. Nothing in the current Weather Prediction Center outlook brings rain to Oregon or Washington through Wednesday, which means the fires still burning are burning in dry air for at least a few more days.
Explore Today
Evacuation readiness, defensible space, and how to read containment numbers over a week rather than a day.
Securing what falls, what to do during shaking, and why the first response matters more than the supplies.
Why the shaking is the warning on this coast, and how to find your route inland before you need it.