From a Moose Creek resident…
Sheriff was just here. They are focusing Red Meadow to Hay Creek today just to say what is going on. They will reassess tomorrow and head up Whale and Moose Creek. They may close the NF to non landowners in 3 or 4 days. Of course short of helicopters and crew but lots of fire engines, grading NF road as well. He said spread the word.
Note that the fire danger in Flathead County is now rated at Extreme.
This press release is also downloadable in PDF format…
Northern Rockies Coordination Group
Northwest Montana Area
For Immediate Release: July 22, 2021
Stage II Fire Restrictions Implemented across NW Montana
Kalispell, MT, July 22, 2021 — Interagency fire managers agreed to implement Stage II Fire Restrictions that will go into effect at 12:01am Monday, July 26th, 2021 across the Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks sites, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Kalispell, Stillwater, and Swan Units, and Flathead County.
Continue reading Stage II Fire Restrictions Implemented across NW Montana
Here we go again. Note that the fire danger in Flathead County is rated at Very High. From the official press release . . .
Northern Rockies Coordination Group
Northwest Montana Area
For Immediate Release: July 15, 2021
Fire Restrictions Updated for NW Montana
Kalispell, MT, July 15, 2021 — Interagency fire managers agreed to implement Stage I Fire Restrictions that will go into effect at 12:01am Saturday, July 17th, 2021 across the Flathead National Forest, Glacier National Park, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Kalispell, Stillwater, and Swan Units, and Flathead County.
Interagency fire managers are implementing Stage II Fire Restrictions that will go into effect at 12:01am Saturday, July 17th, 2021 across the Kootenai National Forest, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Libby Unit, Sanders and Lake County lands.
Interagency fire managers are implementing Stage II Fire Restrictions that will go into effect at 12:00am Friday, July 16th, 2021 across Lincoln County lands.
Continue reading Fire restrictions updated for NW Montana; Flathead County at Stage I Saturday
With fire season fast approaching, this is a nice find. This very handy map showing fires, air quality and smoke plumes is part of the U.S. EPA’s “AirNow” air quality website. Use this link for a map centered on Columbia Falls, MT: https://fire.airnow.gov/?lat=48.3637&lng=-114.1893&zoom=7#. Or you can find it on the NFPA’s “Wildfire Information” page.
With fire season looming, the NFPA’s Wildfire Information page has been subjected to its annual housecleaning. As usual, there was some “link rot.” A few new resources were added and one or two eliminated that simply no longer existed.
Greetings All. Click here to view the full nationwide July/August/September Wildland Fire Potential Outlook.
Here is the graphical summary by month:
Continue reading July/August/September Wildland Fire Potential Outlook
I am a little late forwarding out the current National Wildland Fire Potential. I’ll be sharing this through the fire season until we get our season ending event.
This is as we would expect given our dry spring and spreading drought. The good news is that we in the North Fork are in a better position than most of the West. That is not much consolation since the outlook across the West is grim. Specifically for the Northern Rockies, here are some excerpts: Continue reading June 1st National Wildland Fire Potential
Well, there is Good News and Not as Good News in this Month’s Wildland Fire Potential Outlook!
The Good News is that Montana is now not forecasted for an “Above Normal” September as it has been in the past two Outlooks.
The “Not as Good” News is that things are critically dry across the State. Energy Release Components, an indication of the volatility of the fuels, are in the 95th to 97th percentile, which is pretty much pegging the meter.
For the most part, we have avoided the large fires associated with these seasonally dry fuel conditions. I think the lack of numerous starts from dry lightning storms factors into the equation. And, as we move into September, the potential for dry thunderstorms drops off.
However, there are numerous other ways fires can start – most of them human. Three fires started earlier this week along Highway 200 outside of Plains/Paradise where a flat tire on a trailer sparked fires with the wheel contacting the pavement throwing sparks. Unattended campfires are always a concern – even transitioning out of the summer camping season into the fall hunting season with hunter fires.
So, continue to be careful out there. If we get some of the forecasted moisture alluded to in the narrative, we’ll get out of this fire season relatively intact. More time to work on fuels projects for next fire season! Only You….
https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/predictive/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf
As expected, Northwest Montana continues to be projected as above normal for fire activity through August and September. We can all be glad that the moisture we got at the end of June and the first of July pushed our fire season out from becoming active in early to mid July.
But, with the current temperatures, low overnight temperature and humidity recovery, and live fuels suffering due to the combination of those factors, we can become pretty volatile pretty quickly.
The other aspect of this Outlook indicates we will have enough moisture in the air masses pushing up from the 4 Corners area to stimulate convective activity – dry thunderstorms. So, we can wind up with a lot of new starts from lightning.
Probably not telling any of you anything you don’t know – but it is a good time to get those fire tools shaped up, tanks mounted in 4 wheelers, and watching the lightning maps.
Here is the link to the complete Wildland Fire Potential Outlook. As we have said before, these Outlooks are useful but there are no guarantees.
https://nflandowners.org/nflawp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/August-monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf