Oregon Department of Forestry Announces Official End of 2020 Fire Season

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) announced that at 9:00 AM on Friday (11/6) that Southwest Oregon’s second-longest fire season on record ended. The 190-day season began May 1, among the earliest start dates on record, due to dry conditions and an outlook for above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation. According to Natalie Weber, ODF public information officer, “If you look into next week, we have a lot of chances for additional precipitation. Thursday really gave us that flip in the weather that we’ve been looking for, where it’s just consistently cooler, consistently rain in the forecast.” ODF covers 1.8 million acres of public and private land in Jackson and Josephine counties. During the 2020 fire season, it responded to 220 wildfires that totaled about 40,494 acres, officials said.