Storms may boost fire growth
A red flag warning is in effect today as three rounds of thunderstorms are forecast to hit Western Montana with potentially dramatic impacts on the fast-growing Thompson Fire in Glacier National Park.
“Certainly there’s going to be a lot of fire growth up there,” said Mike Richmond, a meteorologist with the Northern Rockies Coordination Center. “The main hazard would be strong winds and thunderstorms or the frontal winds pushing that fire across the Divide. They’re doing as much as they can with airplane operations to prevent that.”
The National Weather Service is expecting the first round of storms to move in from Central Idaho, mainly impacting Southwest Montana and possibly bringing isolated rain and lightning farther north.
But between noon and 2 p.m., severe thunderstorms are expected to roll through Western Montana, with hail up to an inch in diameter and 60-mile-per-hour wind gusts powerful enough to knock down trees, cause power outages and create hazards to vehicles on the road.
Sustained winds are predicted to reach 20 to 25 miles per hour, with higher winds likely on the ridgetops.
Bryan Henry, another coordination center meteorologist, added that new lightning-caused fires are likely.
“Predictors are showing a lot of new lightning along the Continental Divide, [which could] produce a lot of new fire starts,” he said, adding that high altitude winds also could prove problematic. “It’s going to be interesting, not only from the existing fire, but these new fires that are going to be popping up.”
First reported Sunday afternoon near the confluence of Thompson and Nyack Creeks, the Thompson Fire grew rapidly throughout the week and had covered almost 15,000 acres in four days.
The fire has been burning in the remote Nyack and Thompson drainages in the south-central section of the park, which sees far less visitation than other parts of Glacier.
A perimeter map shows the fire burning near the Continental Divide, where it could potentially spill over into the Two Medicine, Cut Bank and Red Eagle valleys on the park’s east side.
“That fire definitely has a lot of potential for growth, both today and tomorrow, so hopefully it won’t cross the Divide,” Richmond said.
North of the border, Waterton Lakes National Park announced Thursday that nearly all fires within the park — including those in the frontcountry recreation sites— are banned.
The only exceptions are the kitchen shelters at the Townsite Campground and the Cameron Bay and Emerald Bay picnic shelters, which have designated wood-burning stoves.
Waterton Park spokeswoman Doreen McGillis said the ban was an effort to be proactive since there have not been any fires in Waterton this year.
“When we get to a certain fire hazard here, and the conditions dictate it, we impose a fire ban,” she said, adding that the last time such a ban went into effect was 2011.
Glacier Park banned all backcountry campfires Wednesday, although fires are still allowed in some frontcountry campgrounds.
Although storm systems tend to clear the air of upwind smoke impacts, Northwest Montana could get even hazier after the wind and rain die down.
The Montana Division of Environmental Quality on Thursday issued a “moderate impacts” air alert for the Flathead Valley and Libby areas, but expected an improvement as Friday’s low pressure system breaks through the high pressure ridge that held in smoke from fires in California, Washington and Idaho on Wednesday.
But with multiple unstaffed fires already burning in Idaho, along with more than a dozen new fires in the Kootenai National Forest on Tuesday, high winds and widespread lightning to the west could drive even more smoke into the area.
“Those are all going to be growing a lot today and tomorrow with the weather coming, and that’s really going to be increasing the smoke loading in the next couple days,” Richmond said on Thursday.
Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com