Weather forecast this week: Hot with patchy smoke

So many fires in so many acres around us that the very close mountains are obscured by smoke.  This weekend we tried to get out of the valley and drove 3 hours to the northern coast. (More late on that). Some of the worst, evacuation level-3 l fires are on the closest coast to us so those roads are closed.  Judd and I reside in that bowl of white smoke just to the east of the big red Chetco Bar Fire on the coast below (just north of the blue arrow where the smoke almost obscures the town of "Medford" just north of the California border on the NASA today map of Oregon/Washington.  I'm told Oregon used to "manage" their forests but now they don't  so they have grown up into big, dry acres of tinder with the 90-100 degree weather we have.  The cause of the fires is generally lightening strikes which have been unusually prevalent this summer.  Because the geography of being surrounded by all those beautiful in-April mountains, the smoke comes and sits in the bowl of Jacksonville/Medford/ *I wonder why they call it:* Ashland.  We hear it only gets this bad every 3-4 years.  And just when we start to be grumpy about it (and we are, because we have headaches and itchy eyes and the school kids have to have inside recess) then I hear today about one of the doc's whose home is 5 miles from the fire.  And I chose not to watch local news so I don't even realize how many people have been incovenienced by evacuation or worry for their homes.

And below the map is the 10 day forecast..... Contrast that to Kelcy's 10 day forecast in Alaska.  He's done the 14th there and on his way here.  Hope we can warm that guy up without setting him on fire.