Local fire growth slows while t-storms start new fires
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Thunderstorms passed through southwestern Montana on Monday evening, producing lightning strikes and increasing concern that new wildfires would join those surrounding Missoula.
Predictably, on Tuesday morning, the Gravel Pit Fire flared just north of Potomac.
As of 6 a.m. Tuesday, the Gravel Pit Fire burning on U.S. Forest Service land north of Highway 200 was just 2 acres, according to the mtfireinfo.org website. At this point, the cause is still undetermined, but there were lightning strikes in the area on Monday evening.
Farther south, four fires were discovered in the past 24 hours in the Sapphire Mountains. Two small fires - Burnt Fork Creek and Flat Rock at one-tenth of an acre each - are burning east of Corvallis.
The 0.3-acre Gird Creek Fire is burning east of Hamilton and the 0.1-acre Meadow Creek Fire started east of Sula. More fires might be discovered in the coming days because lightning can spark “holdover fires” in remote areas, according to a study by Washington State University researcher Dmitri Kalashnikov.
"Holdovers are extra sneaky because lightning can start a fire, and it might just kind of smolder for a day or two or sometimes a week or more until conditions are right for fire to spread," Kalashnikov said in a release last year. "The lightning storm may have passed a long time ago, and you might think there's no danger, then all the sudden, the fire blows up.”
The National Weather Service Missoula Office is forecasting an increased threat of dry thunderstorms through Wednesday. Isolated thunderstorms could occur east of Missoula and Hamilton on Tuesday, but Wednesday will bring scattered thunderstorms across western Montana.
The National Weather Service has issued a Fire Weather Watch starting Wednesday due to the combination of gusty winds associated with thunderstorms, abundant cloud-to-ground lightning, very low humidity, and hot temperatures.
Meanwhile, the Miller Peak and Butler Creek fires continue to burn, but their spread has slowed since Sunday.
After surging from 20 to 200 acres on Sunday night, the Butler Creek Fire has now burned about 300 acres of grasslands and heavy timber between Missoula and Snow Bowl, according to the InciWeb website.
Crews established a fire line along the north edge and then turned their attention to the western flank. The fire, which was human-caused, is now 15% contained. Evacuation orders were lifted Tuesday afternoon.
South of Missoula, the Miller Peak Fire started more than a week ago and has covered slightly more than 2,500 acres on the Lolo National Forest about 6 miles southwest of Clinton. Gusty winds on Sunday caused fires to spot along the southeastern side, but now, crews are maintaining fire lines on the northeast and southeast edges in an effort to keep the fire from moving toward Interstate 90 and the Clark Fork River. The fire is about 25% contained.
JT Gilman, Northern Rockies Team 5 operations chief, said crews are working to build a line along the western side. They’re also assessing houses and structures along the I-90 corridor for protection opportunities. Team 5 will hold a community meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Bonner Elementary School in Bonner.
Finally, the 23-acre Bible Lane fire a mile east of Alberton is fully contained as of last night. Firefighters will remain on the fire today continuing with mop-up. Smoke may be visible from Interstate 90 for the next few days.
The storms on Monday evening cleared some of the smoke out of the valleys, but smoke and air quality due to local fires are expected to worsen again throughout Tuesday.
According to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, smoke from Canadian wildfires is slowly pulling away from western Montana. However, numerous active, large wildfires burning in Washington, Idaho and Oregon will spread smoke into Montana ahead of an approaching weather system. Monitor air quality at todaysair.mtdeq.us.