PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – It’s only the first week of July, and fire season is already well underway in the Pacific Northwest.

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) held its annual fire boss training on Tuesday with local employees and firefighters to make sure resources on both the air and the ground are prepared for the coming days.

Ground crews made up of employees from ODF and the Hillsboro and Clackamas Fire Departments got the chance to practice communicating with planes about where exactly to drop water on fires.

A pair of Air Tractor 802′s, normally used for agriculture purposes, flew over Hagg Lake to demonstrate scooping up the hundreds of gallons of water–normally about 600 gallons for each plane.

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“More so now than at any time in my career, the wildland fire environment is changing,” said long-time ODF employee Wally Waible, who participated in the training.

“We require various resources, and aviation is becoming more and more important for us in what we do…we’re here to learn how to call in drops and how to communicate with them best,” he said. “We have to put ourselves in their shoes and try to describe it in the best way possible for them to understand what it is that we want.”

Pilot Aaron Vince said it’s a satisfying feeling to drop water exactly where the ground crews were hoping. But sometimes, it’s difficult to communicate.

“Sometimes you have to interpret what they’re saying as, ‘I think he really wants this’, and you go and give him a drop and see if you’re on the same page,” he said.

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A number of elements make it harder every year for these crews to do their jobs.

“Increase in fire activity and decrease in personnel,” Vince said. “It’s like really hard to find pilots right now and I also understand it’s the same for ground resources.”

“With record high temperatures in early July, just continue to compound, and as we get into later in the summer, things are going to get hot and dry and continue to elevate in fire danger,” said Neal Laugle, the State Aviation Manager with the Oregon Department of Forestry.

ODF employees said they are not expecting this fire season to be worse than years past, but they know flames are unpredictable.

“My boss always says, ‘ask me in October, and I’ll tell you how fire season went,’” Waible said.

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The Oregon Ducks might be the hottest team in the country on the recruiting trail.

In just the last week, the Ducks have landed commitments from five-star recruits Jordon Davison and Dorian Brew, as well as four-star talents Josiah Sharma and Dashaan Brame.

In fact, in total for the month of June, Oregon coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks landed six pledges. As a result, they have risen all the way to No. 5 in the On3 national recruiting rankings, trailing only Ohio State, Alabama, LSU and Georgia.

And now, it appears they could be in good shape to contend for another top talent, in five-star Zephyrhills (FL) cornerback DJ Pickett, who placed the Ducks in his top-four on Monday.

Oregon, Georgia, LSU and Miami are the final contenders for the 6-foot-4, 190-pound prospect.

Pickett narrowed his choices after a string of official visits to Oregon on June 21, Miami on June 14, Georgia on June 7, Clemson on June 1, and LSU on May 31.

“Had a great time at Oregon,” Pickett’s father told On3. “Oregon showed a lot of hospitality. Great time Oregon. We saw Oregon had a couple of commitments over the weekend.”

Last season Zephyrhills, Pickett was a two way star, catching 52 passes for 1,033 yards and 15 TD, as well as 31 tackles and a pick on defense. In 2022 as a sophomore, he had 39 tackles, four interceptions and three pass breakups, to go along with 886 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.

Rated as a consensus five-star recruit, Pickett ranks as the No. six player in the nation, the No. 2 cornerback, and the No. 1 player in the talent-rich state of Florida, per the On3 Industry Ranking.

He is set to make his decision later this fall.

An extreme and long-lasting heat dome is forecast to hit Oregon late this week, spiking temperatures as high as 110 degrees and potentially lasting a week or more.

The blistering temperatures could impact Oregon’s electrical grid, increase wildfire danger and make urban centers deadly for the elderly and those without air conditioning, officials said.

The heat is forecast to begin Thursday night — the Fourth of July — and peak Friday and Saturday. In the Willamette Valley, there’s a 15-20% chance of temperatures reaching 110 degrees Saturday and a good chance of three days above 100 degrees.

In Medford, there’s a 30-40% chance of temperatures reaching 115 degrees and five days forecast above 100 degrees.

“I think this is an event that will be remembered,” National Weather Service meteorologist Shawn Weagle said. “This has the potential to be a high impact event.”

The heat isn’t expected to reach the levels of the 2021 heat dome that shattered state records with temperatures of 117 to 118. However, this event is expected to last longer, with a second heat wave possible next week.

“There just isn’t much of a break,” Weagle said.

Deadly heat across Western Oregon

The most concerning time period is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, when temperatures are forecast to reach 98 to 105 across wide swaths of the Willamette Valley. Nighttime temperatures may only drop as low as the 70s.

The farther south you go, the hotter it gets. Medford’s forecast is a blistering string of high temperatures — 104 on Thursday, 110 on Friday, 111 on Saturday, 108 on Sunday and 104 on Monday.

“We’re most concerned about people without access to air conditioning and in apartments,” Weagle said. “The fatalities we saw in 2021 were people without access to cooling.”

In the 2021 heat dome, 123 people died in Oregon because of the heat wave, according to the Center for Health Statistics.

How long will the heat wave in Oregon last?

The first heat wave lasts from Thursday night to Sunday evening, Weagle said, before it breaks somewhat by Monday and Tuesday.

Problem is, “the climate prediction center is putting a moderate risk that the heat lasts into a second week,” he said. “If that happens, we could see a brief cool down before it heats back up for a prolonged period.”

The concern is two weeks of temperatures above 90 with multiple hits above 100 degrees, Weagle said.

“The longer these (heat waves) last the harder they are on people,” he said.

Escape from the heat on the Oregon Coast

The best place to escape the heat, as ever, will be the Oregon Coast, where temperatures are forecast to stay in the 70s, with Tillamook and Astoria reaching the 80s.

“They’re still forecast to get that onshore flow from the ocean, which will cool things down” Weagle said.

Wildfire danger likely to increase in Oregon

Wildfire season has stayed quiet in western Oregon so far this season, with cooler and somewhat wetter conditions than normal. Central Oregon has been more active.

However, a long-stretch of such hot and dry weather could dry out fuels rapidly and increase wildfire danger quickly, leading to a longer summer stretch at high wildfire risk.

What is a heat dome?

As for what’s forecast to cause the heat dome, it’s “a very strong ridge of high pressure that pushes the air down and heats it up,” Weagle said. “Combined with the strong sunshine this time of year and the hot air mass from the southwest, all those factors come together in this heat dome.”

Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 16 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors.