Red Skies in Oregon, the Coast, Come from Russian Wildfires

Published 04/20/2015

(Oregon Coast) – Sunday's intensely red sunset around Oregon – and especially the coast – was the result of wildfires thousands of miles away, say scientists with the National Weather Service. Those wild and often hazy sunsets the region has seen in recent days comes from a massive wildfire in Russian, along with some dust from a storm in China. (Above: Sunday's eerie red skies at Devil's Punchbowl).

These eerie displays – especially on Sunday – have been reported all over western U.S. states.

The fires are taking place in the southeastern Siberian region of Khakassia, where more than 60 villages have been destroyed, over 5,000 left homeless and more than 33 dead. Various video and photos of the scenes have an apocalyptic look full of thick smoke and skies literally on fire.

A second blaze that broke out near that area later in the week is worsening the situation.

The NWS has a computerized weather tracking system called the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS), and a blog about data from the network. The last few days have been focused on these plumes as they crossed the Pacific.

The smoke layers were first spotted over the Pacific on April 15. NWS scientists later pieced together various images and saw its movements from Russia to China, out into the ocean, and then eventually to the Pacific Northwest.

On Sunday, even more of it was becoming apparent, according to the NWS blog.

“You can see the main plume on the borders of California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho, with some smoke moving into central Canada,” the NWS said. “The plume has stayed surprisingly intact (and rather intense). You can also see hints of a big plume over Alaska (unfortunately, one of the areas we don't have a lot of OMPS data for today). And you can see a narrow plume wafting all the way across the Pacific.”

The end result was fiery sunset skies all over the northwest, including Portland, the Oregon coast, Seattle and even into Idaho.

KATU channel 2 news in Portland is reporting these particulates likely cooled temperatures by about two degrees in the Portland area, helping to keep much of Oregon from hitting breaking temperature records many forecasters thought possible this week.

On the coast, it was part of a discernible haze Saturday and Sunday, but central coast towns like Depoe Bay and Lincoln City were experiencing a slight fog in the first place. The real evidence arrived at dusk on both days. Saturday's sunset become a muddled pink, while Sunday's was notoriously red and fiery just about everywhere on the West Coast.

More of these recent Oregon coast sunsets below.

Below: Saturday's sunset at Lincoln City.

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