When smoke gets in your lens

Standup paddleboarders cruise around a smoky Flathead Lake on Tuesday afternoon near Lakeside. Though there are a few fires in Montana, most of the smoke is coming from Idaho, Oregon and Washington. According to Flathead National Forest public affairs officer Wade Muehlhof, “We’re not putting up smoke here locally. It’s all coming from the west.” With hot and dry days upcoming in the forecast, Muehlhof stressed the importance of the public reducing possibilities of man-started fires by taking extreme caution with things like cigarettes and chains dragging behind vehicles. The fires in the Kalispell area were kept under two acres this past weekend. According to the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, lightning storms last Friday and Saturday lit up the night sky with an impressive show resulting in eight fires; most were west of Kalispell in the Pleasant Valley and Hubbart Dam areas. (Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake)