Wind shift expected on Condon fire

The Condon Mountain Fire grew substantially Sunday, but mostly due to burnout operations aimed at controlling it.

Meanwhile, a change in weather patterns today could bring increasing winds in the fire area.

The fire, burning about four miles northeast of Condon on the Swan Range, was estimated at around 500 acres by early evening but that was adjust to about 900 acres at the end of the day. The fire has not escaped indirect containment lines.

“They did some burnouts and that ends up getting wrapped into” the acreage estimate, said Wade Muehlhof, public information officer for the Flathead National Forest. “A big part of that jump is what we were doing to establish better firelines.”

Back burning was carried out with aerial ignition on the southern flank of the fire to reduce unburned fuels within containment lines. Helicopter bucket drops were used to check the fire’s growth downslope toward homes and cabins in the Swan Valley.

Two 20-person crews, one 10-person crew, four engines and up to three helicopters are working on the fire along with an incident command team.

The current high pressure system that has dominated weather over the area was expected to begin breaking up Monday night, allowing for a strong cold front to move into the area today.

Fire managers are watching conditions closely for shifting winds that are expected with the weather change. Wind gusts could reach 40 mph and the wind direction is expected to swing around to the east.

Smoke that in recent days has been clouding Flathead Valley skies, mostly south of Kalispell, has been drifting in from a cluster of fires in the Idaho Panhandle.

A government weather website that uses computer modeling to track smoke shows a drift of smoke from east to west, mostly across southwestern Montana. But Muehlhof said there have been northerly flows bringing smoke over the Flathead Valley.

“The reality is that’s where we’re getting our smoke from,” Muehlhof said.