091
FXUS66 KPDT 232305
AFDPDT

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Pendleton OR
405 PM PDT Thu Jul 23 2026

.KEY MESSAGES...
1. Continued dry and warm conditions
     *Heat Advisory in Effect*

2. Isolated to scattered thunderstorms Today
   *Red Flag Warning in affect for Abundant Lightning*

3. Hot, dry and windy conditions return Friday & Saturday
    *Red Flag Warning in affect for winds and RHs*

&&

.DISCUSSION...
Current satellite shows some cumulus beginning to pop up over the
eastern portion of the CWA in Grant, Union and Wallowa Counties.
THunderstorms are expected to persist through the early evening with
the potential for abundant lightning, small hail and outflow winds
of 45 mph.

Continued dry and warm conditions have persisted over the last few
days with high daytime temperatures in the 90s up to near 105
degrees. Overnight temperatures have been in the upper 60s to low
70s. With that, a heat advisory has been issued for heat related
impacts. The heat advisory will end tonight as low pressure moves in
allowing temperatures to moderate out and cool a bit. Confidence in
the heat settling is 80-90%.

Today will see another round of thunderstorms across the region.
This time they will be farther east across the eastern mountains,
the Blue and into the Wallowa area. Abundant lightning is expected
with these storms as well as small hail and gusty outflow winds
around 45 mph. Confidence in these thunderstorms is high with 80-90%
however, confidence in where storms will actually traverse is
moderate. Storms could travel a bit farther north into the Blues so
extended the Red Flag warning to cover there.

Models show the upper level low to continue to push onshore bringing
with it cooler yet still dry air. NBM raw ensembles shows there to
be above 80% probabilities of see 25 to 30 mph sustained winds
across the Gorge, foothills of the southern Blues, Simcoe Highland of
Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Valleys. 80% probabilities of 15-20
mph winds between north central OR, central OR and the central and
southern Blue mountains. The dry air will keep humidity to 25% and
below through those areas and coupled with the winds will lead to
critical fire weather. SPC also has a large portion of the
aforementioned areas in critical fire weather. With all that, a Red
Flag Warning has been issued for the southern Blue mountains and the
central mountains of OR for Friday. Then Saturday those two zones
plus the central Blue mountains, Kittitas Valley, lower Columbia
Basin of OR & WA and northern Deschutes National Forest for winds
and RHs.

&&

.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SATURDAY/...
VFR to MVFR conditions with haze and smoke from surrounding wild
fires continue to impact sites in Central Oregon and the
Colombia Basin. Breezy winds expected to persist in
DLS/PDT/RDM/BDN with gusts up to 20 to 30 knots.

&&

.FIRE WEATHER...
A lot happening in the fire weather realm of things.
Today will see thunderstorms along the eastern portion of the CWA.
Abundant lightning is expected with these storms as well as small
hail and gusty outflows of near 45 mph. Tomorrow will see another
round of Red Flag Warnings for central Mountains of Oregon and
the southern Blue Mountains for winds and RHs. These two will
roll into Saturday and be accompanied by central Blue mountains,
Kittitas Valley, lower Columbia Basin of OR & WA and northern
Deschutes National Forest for winds and critical RHs.

&&

.Preliminary Point Temps/PoPs...
PDT  61  96  61  90 /   0   0   0   0
ALW  68  99  67  93 /   0   0   0   0
PSC  66 100  66  94 /   0   0   0   0
YKM  64  99  64  89 /   0   0   0   0
HRI  65  99  66  92 /   0   0   0   0
ELN  61  94  60  86 /   0   0   0   0
RDM  56  95  54  89 /   0   0   0   0
LGD  62 100  61  96 /   0   0   0   0
GCD  58 100  57  95 /   0   0   0   0
DLS  65  96  64  85 /   0   0   0   0

&&

.PDT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
WA...Heat Advisory until 9 PM PDT this evening for WAZ024-027>029.
     Red Flag Warning from 10 AM to 8 PM PDT Saturday for WAZ690-
     691.
     Red Flag Warning until 9 PM PDT this evening for WAZ693.
     Red Flag Warning until 7 PM PDT this evening for WAZ692.
     Air Quality Alert until 9 AM PDT Friday for WAZ028>030.
OR...Heat Advisory until 9 PM PDT this evening for ORZ041-044-507.
     Red Flag Warning from 10 AM to 8 PM PDT Saturday for ORZ691-
     697-704.
     Air Quality Alert until noon PDT Friday for ORZ044-049-050-502-
     503-505-506-508-509-511.
     Red Flag Warning until 8 PM PDT this evening for ORZ694-695-
     697>699.
     Red Flag Warning until 9 PM PDT this evening for ORZ693.
     Red Flag Warning from 1 PM Friday to 8 PM PDT Saturday for
     ORZ698-700.
     Red Flag Warning until 7 PM PDT this evening for ORZ692.

&&

$$

DISCUSSION...90
AVIATION...95
FIRE WEATHER...90