Courtesy of Elissa Looney/Hillsboro

The skies above Portland will fill with smoke from area wildfires on Monday both downgrading the air quality and downgrading the forecast high temps. As the wind turns northeasterly later in the day, so will more smoke filter into the metro area from British Columbia and eastern Washington.

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AirNow.gov

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has continued its air quality advisory through noon Wednesday for basically all of the Northwest including Portland, the North Coast and much of the Willamette Valley. Air quality conditions are expected to worsen Monday evening and then stick around through Wednesday.

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Oregon Smoke

Smoke levels and rise and fall rapidly in specific locations. If you need detailed smoke information the Oregon Smoke Information website is a great source for specific locations as well as overall smoke levels in the region.

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Rosemarie Stein/The Oregonian/Oregonlive

The weak upper level low pressure system currently over the area will move east Monday then be replaced by another disturbance diving south from British Columbia. This system could offer a slight chance of thunderstorms in the Cascades Monday evening and into Tuesday.

On Tuesday a few thunderstorms could develop over the southern Washington Cascades and then drift into the Clark County lowlands and eastern portions of Portland metro area. Chances are low, but keep an eye out for that.

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Tuesday was meant to be the hottest day of the week with temperatures nearing 100 degrees. With the amount of smoke believed to move into the area by Tuesday, forecasters with the National Weather Service have downgraded the high temperature prediction to 95 degrees. Still hot and still likely to break the all-time record for 90+ degree days in one year. The current record is 29 days set in 2015. Monday could tie the record, and Tuesday is likely to break it.

If Tuesday doesn't break it, it's possible Wednesday will as the haze could start to break up by early afternoon and skies will be sunny with a high near 90.

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Brand new, up close video of yesterday's tornado near Mazie, Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/gW3iFFeVG9 — WeatherNation (@WeatherNation) August 20, 2018

Smoke - still better than tornados?