Weather Wise: Fire Season Look Back

Montana had some intense wildfires this year. On July 9, the Horse Gulch Fire near Canyon Ferry became the biggest early-season fire burning more than 15,000 acres. Days later, lightning sparked numerous fires in southeast Montana including the Deadman and McGhee fires that burned nearly 20,000 acres.

By the end of July, the the Bitterroot lit up with the Miller Peak, Railroad and Johnson fires burning thousands of acres. The Johnson and Railroad fires came back to life a few weeks ago and blew smoke across Montana in October.

The end of August got busy with the Daly, Ratio Mountain, Big Hollow and Sharrot Creek fires igniting around the Bitterroot and western Montana again. In southeast Montana, the Remington fire started in Wyoming, burning into Montana, scorching a total of nearly 200,000 acres.

According to the Northern Rockies Regional Coordination Center, Montana had 344,466 acres burned. 700 fires were started by lightning, and over 1,300 were human-caused. The average acreage burned in one year in Montana is 470,000 acres. This was the 4th year in a row with fire activity below that average.

Those numbers are not final just yet as a warm fall with ongoing drought conditions creating elevated fire danger well into fall.