Weather may change fire situation
<p>The Big Salmon Lake Fire puts up a sizable plume of smoke on Sunday. The fire has covered 4,100 acres in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.</p>
<p>This map shows the patterns of growth of the Hammer Creek Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The fire, currently at 5,100 acres, tripled its size in the past week. The fire was ignited by lightning on Aug. 8.</p>
<p>This map shows the progression of the Big Salmon Lake Fire in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. The fire has covered 4,100 acres since it was started Aug. 16 by people.</p>
The National Weather Service is forecasting a weather front that should cool down Western Montana fires, including a new one that recently emerged northeast of Libby.
A weather system is expected to invade the Northern Rockies Wednesday into Thursday, producing much lower temperatures and showers.
Temperatures are expected to be 25 to 35 degrees lower than they were over the past weekend.
High temperatures at Logan Pass in Glacier Park have in the lower 70s recently, but may only reach the lower 40s later this week, and there is a chance there could be light snow at higher elevations in the park.
High temperatures in the Flathead Valley are expected to be around 65 degrees.
The cooler weather should help firefighters working on the Ariana 2 Fire that turned up in a tributary drainage of the Fisher River east of Libby on Aug. 26.
The human-caused fire is burning in grass and timber on Plum Creek and some state lands and has covered more than 200 acres.
So far, there are about 140 people on the fire, along with four engines, three water tenders, two helicopters and a bulldozer.
Meanwhile, fires burning for weeks in the Bob Marshall Wilderness have gained ground in recent days.
The Big Salmon Lake Fire has mostly been backing to the west, and is now sized at 4,100 acres.
The Forest Service recently determined that the fire, which started near the north shoreline of Big Salmon Lake, was caused by people.
Spotted Bear District Ranger Deb Mucklow declined to elaborate on the cause.
"All I can say is that it is now validated as human-caused and it's under investigation," Mucklow said.
Several miles to the southeast in the wilderness, the Hammer Creek Fire is now mapped at 5,100 acres. The fire has recently been active in the Lime Creek Basin northeast of the Big Prairie Ranger Station, burning in steep terrain where fuels are limited. Both of the wilderness fires are being allowed to burn for the most part for resource benefits.
The South Lost Creek Fire, burning outside the wilderness about seven miles southeast of Swan Lake, was most recently sized at 1,589 acres.
The fire is expected to remain active for several weeks because parts of it are in inaccessible terrain. Helicopters have been working on it recently to prevent it from burning to the east into the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
Initial attack firefighters, including some smokejumpers, pounced on several fires that cropped up on state lands in the Swan Valley on Monday as the result of recent lightning. None of the fires became significant in size.