KALISPELL- Huge smoke columns have again become visible from fires that are still burning but had settled down a bit across Northwest Montana.
But why were we seeing the smoke pick up again?
Coming out of some favorable weather that helped firefighters battle the blazes, we are seeing record heat and along with that heat — wind.
The smoke column visible throughout the Flathead on Tuesday was from the Doris Point Fire burning on Hungry Horse Reservoir. That fire started on July 30, 2023, from lightning, and until Tuesday had stayed under 100 acres. But the blaze has now grown to over 750 acres.
"We had some favorable weather to keep the fire growth very limited. We had some inversion that kind of kept the fire and kept it small. And now as everyone is experiencing we have hot weather. It's very dry and then the winds picked up yesterday," said Flathead National Forest spokeswoman Kira Powell.
As you can imagine, the heat, wind, and terrain were optimal fire conditions and we'll continue to see the fires grow this week because of that.
“We are seeing a hot and dry trend for the next couple of days and we'll have a Red Flag Fire Qatch for Thursday. So the firefighting crews are aware of this and they are prepared and they are looking for opportunities," said Powell. "While maintaining firefighter safety and public safety is our top priority. So as these conditions continue, yes, we will see increased fire behavior throughout our area with several fires, and we can expect to see more fire plumes, more smoke columns from those fires."
Flathead County remains under Stage 2 Fire Restrictions.
