Early May has been more like midsummer, the heart of fire season around Oregon.

Wildfires east and west of the Cascades have already charred more than 100 acres. High temperatures around the state have reached or are expected to reach 80 degrees. There has been little, if any, rain.

Oregon’s warm, dry weather over the past week could be a harbinger of a busy wildfire season throughout the state, said Jason Loomis, wildland fire analyst for the Northwest Coordination Center in Portland.

The center predicts fire activity and coordinates firefighting for state and federal agencies around the Northwest.

“We could be in for a doozy of a season is all I’m saying,” Loomis said.

Fire season got off to an early start over the weekend with the 168-acre Burgess Road Fire, caused by downed power lines near La Pine, and the 206-acre Shively Creek Fire near Canyonville in Douglas County, said Rod Nichols, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry. Investigators Tuesday were still trying to determine the cause of the Shively Creek Fire. The fires were the largest of more than a dozen wildfires around the state over the past week.

Nichols said the warm, dry days in the forecast for last weekend brought with them the possibility of wildfire.

“Still, it was surprising to see so much,” he said.

Warm weather should continue the rest of this week in Central Oregon, according to the National Weather Service.

While there haven’t been any records set, the high temperatures are hotter than typical for this time of year, said Diana Hayden, a Weather Service meteorologist in Pendleton. The average for this time of year in Redmond is in the high 60s.

“We are fairly well above normal,” she said.

Along with the warm temperatures, there is a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms this week, Hayden said. Whether the storms cause lightning that starts fires depends on how dry grasslands and forests are and if the storms bring rain.

Lightning and people are the two most common causes for wildfire in Central Oregon.

Over the past decade, the Deschutes National Forest has averaged 200 fires per year, with 16,000 acres burned. The Ochoco National Forest has averaged 60 fires per year with 1,900 acres burned, and land overseen by the Prineville District of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has averaged 100 fires per year with 26,000 acres burned, Loomis said.

Fire and acreage totals can vary greatly each year, with a high number of fires some years but a low number of acres burned, and vice versa, he said. Based on the current weather conditions and recent fire activity, the fire season looks to be busy.

“Right now it is shaping up to be a pretty significant fire season,” Loomis said.