July...Wildfire Season Begins in Montana

Yesterday, smoke appreciably increased in the Bitterroot Valley. The video catches the line of smoke as it pans to the right (looking southward in the Valley). This activity is part of living in Montana.

Here's what it should look like (at sunset) viewing southward of the Valley:

The state of Montana has a variety of resources online to keep everyone informed of immediate wildfire dangers, but also secondary health concerns. Department of Environmental Quality has a 'smoke' scoring system for health effects:

Here's a map of current wildfire activity in western Montana from the Northern Rockies Coordination Center website: 

You can track the wildfires in your neck of the woods at InciWeb. Personally, have had only one incident in which our neighborhood was threatened by fire (nothing like coming home from work seeing a smoke column near your residence). Firefighters got on this "start", mere .5 mile away, quickly and in force...nothing bad happened. So a big THANK YOU to those who fight fire. Be safe everybody.