ENTERPRISE — The air quality in Wallowa County is expected to change significantly over the next couple of days.

Enterprise’s air quality rating as of 3 p.m. Saturday July 17, was moderate at 66, but it is expected to be significantly worse the next two days.

The air quality monitoring website +IQAir projects that Enterprise’s air quality rating will be 157 on July 18 and 159 on July 19. Both will be in the unhealthy category.

A similar projection is in place for La Grande. The city had a good air quality rating of 21 as of 3 p.m. July 17, but the city’s air quality ratings are projected to get significantly worse on July 18 when its rating is projected to be 126 and on July 19 when it should be 124, according to +IQAIR. The projected ratings for both days will both be in the unhealthy category.

The reason air quality is projected to drop in La Grande and Enterprise is that wind from the southwest which is blowing smoke in from the large Bootleg Fire in Southwest Oregon to Northeast Oregon will push smoke that is now aloft to the floors of the Grande Ronde and Wallowa valleys, according to Rob Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Pendleton.