Oregon's Air Quality Index showed good air quality much of summer 2019. After two record-breaking seasons, Oregon saw a much-needed reprieve from wildfire smoke this summer. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality issued only one air quality advisory this year due to wildfire smoke. The advisory was for the area downwind of the Milepost 97 Fire in southwest Oregon, and lasted only a week. By contrast: in both 2017 and 2018, wildfire smoke inundated Oregon communities off and on for months. DEQ issued and reissued air quality advisories for much of the state throughout the summer. Smoke flowed into communities from fires burning across the Pacific Northwest, California and British Columbia. Southern and Central Oregon were the hardest hit parts of the state, but the Portland area also experienced smoke like never before. At one point in August 2018, all but two Oregon counties were under an air quality advisory due to unhealthy levels of wildfire smoke. But this