Air quality to be poor, days foggy.

Byline: The Register-Guard

If you've enjoyed our recent weather - foggy mornings, sunny afternoons and chilly nights - then you'll love what's in store for the next week.

The National Weather Service expects the current weather pattern to hold through Thursday. Highs are expected to range from the mid-40s to lower-to-mid-50s during the day, and lows will dip into the low 30s and the mid-20s early next week.

Friday morning brought particularly dense fog to Eugene and Springfield before burning off later in the day, but it wasn't enough to delay flights at the Eugene Airport, airline representatives said.

On the down side, meteorologists predict stagnant air throughout the state for the next seven to 10 days, which prompted an air quality advisory on Friday from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

DEQ officials are asking Oregonians to avoid outdoor burning, refrain from using fireplaces and wood stoves unless necessary and limit driving and vehicle idling until the stagnant air conditions change.

If wood burning is your only source of heat, hot fires using dry wood cause less pollution, officials said.

Pollution levels in the state have been creeping up for the past 48 hours, the DEQ said, with the biggest offenders being car exhaust and wood stoves.

During stagnant weather conditions, fine particles of exhaust and smoke are trapped at ground level and can be inhaled deeply into lungs and damage lung tissue, officials said.

Young children, pregnant women, people with asthma and other lung or heart conditions, and people older than 50 are at the greatest risk and should consider restricting their outdoor activities, the said.