PORTLAND, Ore. – Millions of acres of national forest lands across Oregon and Washington are continuing to see record-breaking dry timber conditions on both sides of the Cascades, the U.S. Forest Service said Tuesday. These critical conditions are spurring rapid wildfire growth from recent lightning storms, including the July 16-17th storms which produced over 2,000 strikes in 48 hours. Places like the Fremont-Winema and Deschutes national forests in Oregon have surpassed 75 days without wetting rains. And 45 days without wetting rain is widespread across the Pacific Northwest from the Rogue River-Siskiyou area of far southern Oregon over to the Wallowa-Whitman range in the east and north into the Okanogan-Wenatchee country of central Washington. “This is shaping up to be another monster fire year in the Pacific Northwest – and it’s just mid-July,” said Ed Hiatt, Pacific Northwest Assistant Fire Director for Operations.