wildfires

Very dry conditions, gusty winds up to 40 MPH, and the chance of lightning storms have created dangerous fire conditions across all of western Montana on Friday. Any wildfires that start today will be difficult to contain, so Red Flag Warnings have been issued across the western counties.

Wildfire smoke from Canada, and the smoke from fires within Montana dropped the Air Quality Index (AQI) in parts of Montana by dozens of points on Wednesday. Thursday isn't looking too promising either with Air Quality Alerts and Heat Advisories in effect for large portions of the state.

Red Flag Warnings have been issued for a large area covering Fort Peck Lake and the Missouri River on Thursday. Very dry conditions and gusty winds up to 40 MPH today make for extremely precarious conditions.

Montana has been surrounded by raging wildfires all summer and now we have plenty of our own to deal with. One of the most challenging aspects of these wildfires is the particulate filled smoke that they produce. It can stay localized in valleys or continuously blow into the state with the jet stream. How can you stay healthy if you're susceptible to breathing issues?

It's not the worst we've ever seen, but a few more unlucky lightning strikes and Montana's wildfire season could explode. We're currently battling 77 active wildfires and they are for the most part in remote, hard to fight areas, with plenty of timber and fuel to burn.

Over 60% of the wildfires in Montana are human-caused. We can do better. Here are some things that you can do to help prevent wildfires in Montana.

Do you remember how bad the fire season was that year?

Please, Mother Nature. No dry thunderstorms this afternoon. Unfortunately, there's a decent possibility of them popping up around southwest Montana today. The dangers of our continued hot weather are prompting a Red Flag Warning until at least Thursday night.

Here is an updated list of wildfires currently burning across Montana.

Wildfire smoke has absolutely saturated the state of Montana. Missoula, Butte, Helena and Bozeman all have some of the worst air quality numbers in the entire United States, with some AQI numbers ranking worse than Jakarta, Indonesia or Delhi, India. That's really bad.

The Pollux Fire is burning near the headwaters of the Lamar River.

Gallatin County Emergency Management has provided a list of resources to aid victims in their attempt to recover from this event.