More than 3,600 acres are still burning in the Columbia River Gorge, where a blaze that began last week foreshadows what experts think will be an above-normal Northwest wildfire season .

Hazardous conditions across the region should temporarily ease by Friday when a wet system pushes in from the Pacific.

The Rowena fire, above I-84 between Hood River and The Dalles, Ore., was only 10% contained Sunday afternoon. It has burned 54 homes and 91 other structures, according to the Wasco County Sheriff’s Office. No lives have been lost. The flames briefly closed the freeway Thursday and still blocked local Highway 30 over the weekend.

Fire crews were “mopping up” hot spots on the west edge of the fire zone Sunday and planned to preemptively burn some trees at risk of combusting, Oregon fire officials said in a briefing video.

Meanwhile in Washington state, the Pomas fire west of Lake Chelan scorched 163 acres and remains active, while six small blazes were reported Sunday around the state, according to the tracking site watchduty.org.

Statewide, 2,500 acres have burned as of last week, the state Department of Natural Resources said.

The National Weather Service in Spokane predicts “elevated fire weather conditions through Wednesday,” followed by cooling and a chance of “much needed rain” by Friday for the inland Northwest. The NWS says it almost declared red flag warnings for Wenatchee, the Waterville Plateau and west Columbia Basin in anticipation of 30 mph gusts Monday and highs near 80. Lightning isn’t a threat, however.

Last week, crews doused the Cle Elum area’s 53-acre Red Bridge fire that threatened at least two homes , as a dry June aggravates low precipitation in May.

The state already declared a drought emergency blanketed over 15 counties, including the irrigation-reliant Yakima River basin. Mountain snows have melted sooner than normal the past three springs.

There haven’t been any large fires yet this year in Western Washington, where climate scientists have predicted a hotter future will cause more smoky summers like 2017 , when significant fires flared west of the Cascades.

This week’s Seattle area forecast calls for highs in the low- to mid-70s through Thursday, cooling on Friday to around 65 degree highs. A slight sprinkling is likely by Wednesday morning, followed by more sun. Then by Friday, the skies will be mostly cloudy with rain entering the weekend.

That long-overdue moisture, delivered by a big low-pressure system from the Gulf of Alaska, could deposit up to one-third of an inch of rain in Puget Sound lowlands and 1 inch around Spokane, said weather service meteorologist Anna Lindeman.

So far this month, there has been zero measurable rain at SeaTac, after only 0.83 inches fell last month, about half of normal, she said.

Why would Eastern Washington be wetter than the west side? Lindeman said that “wraparound moisture” Friday is supposed to push south of the Olympics and through the Columbia Gorge toward the inland Northwest.

“Snow levels are actually going to drop, to 5,000 or 6,000 feet,” she said. That won’t bring the state’s essential snowpack to par, she said, but could create a “light dusting” on Cascade peaks.

Information from Oregonlive.com was included in this report.