Oregon is on course for its worst wildfire season on record, with more than a million acres already burned across the central and eastern parts of the state. Thirty-four major fires are raging across public rangeland, sending thick smoke as far as Boise, Idaho, and forcing air quality advisories in a city of more than 700,000 people. The scale of the destruction reflects a combination of extreme weather and reduced firefighting capacity, raising concerns about how the rest of the season will unfold.

The fires, which stretch from near Bend to the Idaho border, were largely ignited by lightning storms accompanied by little rain and strong winds, with climate change worsening conditions by driving up temperatures and drying out the landscape faster. Oregon recorded its lowest snowpack last winter, and the National Interagency Fire Center has moved to its highest preparedness level. Complicating the response, roughly 10,000 US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management jobs were cut under the Trump administration's DOGE initiative. Thousands of residents in small towns have been evacuated, ranchers are scrambling to move cattle ahead of feed shortages, and stretches of Interstate 84 face unpredictable closures. State climatologist Larry O'Neill has warned there is "no reprieve in the immediate forecast."