Where’s this smoke coming from? Nearby wildfires cast smoky haze over Boise Friday morning
Boise residents woke up on Friday morning to disorienting conditions outside — but don’t fret, you’re still in Idaho. Between the scorching temperatures this week and a blanket of smoke on its way to the Treasure Valley, it’s not going to be a fun couple of days to spend time outside.
Boise residents are already dealing with the prospect of temperatures as high as 104 degrees on Friday. Now, we’re about to deal with smoke from two separate wildfires.
Fortunately, neither wildfire originates close to Boise. Eastward winds are blowing smoke from a pair of wildfires in Oregon and California toward Idaho. The first hints of smoke arrived on Tuesday, but according to National Weather Service meteorologist Josh Smith, the worst is arriving this weekend.
Here’s what to know.
Where is the smoke coming from?
The two wildfires that are primarily affecting Boise originate near the West Coast.
The first, the Salt Creek Fire, is about 20 miles from Medford, Oregon. As of Friday morning , the Oregon Department of Forestry estimated the fire was about 3,990 acres and had been 24% contained.
Farther south, the Shelly Fire in the Marble Mountain Wilderness of northern California has burned approximately 6,261 acres as of Tuesday morning. None of the fire is yet to be contained, according to the federal government’s Incident Information System.
A third Oregon fire, the Cow Valley Fire, has quickly grown in size since it began on Thursday near the city of Brogdan, according to the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office. The wildfire, over 16,000 acres in size, is also blowing a plume of wildfire smoke toward Idaho.
What will the smoke be like in Boise?
Although smoke started hovering over the Treasure Valley on Tuesday morning, the worst of it arrived on Friday morning.
“Once the sun goes down, a lot of this smoke and stuff will settle into the valleys,” Smith told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday afternoon.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has issued a yellow air quality advisory for Boise every day since Tuesday, meaning those unusually sensitive to bad air quality should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.
“It’ll be somewhat better in the afternoon, with the winds helping push it out and mix it up into the atmosphere, so at least we get a little of a reprieve here at the surface,” Smith said. “But it’ll still be pretty hazy; not going to see a clear blue sky (in the morning).”
Is there a fire risk for Idaho?
As of Friday morning, no significant wildfires are happening in Idaho, but don’t get your hopes up for a quiet summer.
Between 2013 and 2023, Idaho averaged about 600,000 acres burned from wildfires yearly. The Gem State only witnessed 97,504 acres in 2023, signaling an especially quiet summer.
But arid and hot temperatures over the last few weeks could spell trouble when thunderstorms are in the forecast, such as for the end of next week. About 40% of wildfires are started by lightning striking dry brush.
“With the heat and being dry for an extended period of time, the risk of fires has definitely increased over the last 10 days or so,” Smith said. “It could become more problematic toward the end of the week here because we are forecasting some thunderstorms, so that could cause some fire starts if that materializes.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2024 at 4:23 PM.
