Montana Wildfire News

Representative Greg Gianforte toured areas affected by the Howe Ridge Fire in Glacier National Park Wednesday morning.

Wildfire activity has moderated in Western Montana in the wake of wet and cool weather earlier this week, but crews remain hard at work as temperatures start to rise again .

In Glacier National Park the Howe Ridge Fire is now estimated at more than 11,000 acres. Despite continued growth, though, fire managers say they’re making good progress shoring up protections along Going-To-The-Sun Road.

A new study says that less summer precipitation, and longer summer dry spells, are major drivers of increased wildfire activity in the western U.S. It’s contrary to previous understanding that warming temperatures and earlier snowmelt are the only factors in bigger wildfire seasons.

Rain in western Montana Monday did little to slow fire growth across the state. "Well it’s a mixed blessing," said Jay Nichols, a spokesperson assigned to the Monument and Wigwam Fires burning south of Ennis. "So obviously wind isn’t a good thing, rain’s a good thing, but I don’t know that it will be a substantial amount of rain." Nichols says together the fires are burning more than 10,000 acres. An evacuation notice for the Haypress Lakes area in the Shining Mountains Subdivision was reduced

July of 2015 was the warmest month on record in the history of our planet, 2015 is on trend to be our warmest recorded year, and in much of the American west that warmth has been coupled with moderate to extreme drought conditions. With emissions of greenhouse gases showing no sign of decreasing, these records will probably not last long. For Montana, it means that our overall climate is likely to get warmer and drier. As that happens, wildfires are likely to grow in both frequency and scale.

A brand-new website consolidates statewide air quality conditions and serves as a resource for Montanans concerned about the impacts of wildfire smoke. MontanaWildfireSmoke.org is now live and made possible by a small Missoula-based non-profit called Climate Smart Missoula.

The Flathead National Forest said Thursday it will move ahead with a commercial logging and hazardous fuels reduction project just north of Hungry Horse Reservoir.

Update 4:15 p.m. For the second year running, the historic Lake McDonald Lodge will close for the season early because of a fire burning in Glacier National Park. The Howe Ridge Fire continues to burn more than 3,500 acres on the northwest side of Lake McDonald.

Update: 5:50 p.m. The Howe Ridge Fire in Glacier National Park that destroyed a set of historic cabins over the weekend continues to grow. Wednesday night, an infrared flight measured the fire perimeter at 3,500 acres, a growth of roughly 900-acres from two days ago.