BOZEMAN – A weak Pacific storm is slowly spinning into the Pacific NW and should push a cold front across Montana Monday night through Tuesday night.
This will bring increased surface wind gusts and create higher fire danger.
There is a RED FLAG WARNING up across a very small area of SW Montana mostly in northern Powell County through midnight Monday. The combination of gusty winds and low humidity will create critical fire conditions.
Thick wildfire smoke is likely to impact most of SW Montana this week. The fire that will likely produce the most smoke is south of Salmon, ID called the Hayden Fire. As of 1 pm Monday the fire is a little over 7,000 acres. Forecast models show a thick plume of wildfire smoke from the Hayden fire will develop this evening into Tuesday with increasing surface wind gusts ahead of a cold front.
Other fires to note is the Bowles Creek Fire near Skalkaho Pass and this fire at last report was over 1200 acres in size. The Colt Fire near Seeley Lake has grown to almost 3,000 acres in size. Both of these fires have the potential for significant fire growth with increasing surface wind gusts ahead of a cold front tonight.
Temperatures will be trending down slightly behind the aforementioned cold beginning Tuesday but the overall pattern continues to be mostly dry with a slight chance for a popup thunderstorm.
