Rare winter fires in the Oregon Coast Range

Wildfire Heat detected in Washington and Oregon by a satellite — Heat detected in Washington and Oregon by a satellite at 1:08 p.m. PT, January 24, 2014

Rare winter fires are burning in Oregon’s Coast Range in areas that would normally be cold and wet much of the year, but especially in January. They are not huge, but some fires in Washington and Oregon are large enough to be detected by a satellite as you can see in the image above.

Below is an excerpt from KGW:

ARCH CAPE, Ore. — Rare winter wildfires in the Oregon Coast Range, visible from as far as 20 miles away, continued to burn early Friday morning east of Arch Cape.

The first was reported about 3 p.m. Thursday and second one about midnight south of the original fire, according to Seaside police.

Because it has been so dry and the wind has blown so hard early this winter season, forestry officials believe smoldering slash piles from the fall roared back to life and became new, bigger fires.

The fires, called Falcon and Shingle, were burning about 120 total acres Friday afternoon. A flight restriction was put in the place around the fires.

Gusts that reached an estimated 70 mph had flames jumping logging roads. At least 120 people were involved in the firefighting efforts by early Friday morning, including crews from Cannon Beach, Seaside, Gearhart, Nehalem departments and the U.S. Forest Service.

Thanks and a hat tip go out to JW and Steve