A couple of days of calm weather has blanketed much of Western Montana in thick smoke, but a cold front is moving in, and that has firefighters concerned.
"Today we have a red flag warning from 17:00 until midnight for lightning, high winds, low relative humidities, the thunderstorms are predicted to come in dry, so we're gonna be prepped and ready for initial attack. We've got plans to incorporate local and county task forces and for Missoula County, Ravalli County and we'll be ready for initial attack requests, should those come, and we'll be prepared for the weather that's gonna possibly present itself later this evening, " says Mark Goeller, the operations section chief on the Lolo Peak Fire southwest of Missoula.
The Republican members of Montana’s congressional delegation will visit the incident command post for the Lolo Peak Fire in Florence tomorrow, and will be joined by Agriculture Secretary Sunny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
This morning the Lolo Peak Fire was estimated at just over 33,000 acres in size.