Fire season ramping up in Montana

Fire season is ramping up as Montana increasingly faces dry hot weather, and while no counties in the area have yet moved into Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 fire restrictions, some, including Hill and Blaine counties, are implementing burn bans.

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In a weekly regional fire call Tuesday morning with counties and agencies across much of Montana, National Weather Service Glasgow said red flag warnings are being issued for fire weather across the state and it’s looking like the fire season is going to ramp up soon.

The Weather Service reports very high temperatures and increasingly low humidity across the region.

The area might see some dry thunderstorms coming from the southwest early this week but precipitation will likely be very low, with rain over a tenth of an inch unlikely for most areas, they said.

They said temperatures look poised to fall a bit later in the week but they will pick back up over the weekend, though this may also come with an increased chance of showers next week.

Those counties that were on the call reported on recent fire activity in their respective areas, though some of them hadn’t seen any fires in the past week.

Hill County, which implemented its burn ban Tuesday morning, reported no fires save for a controlled burn north of Inverness.

Blaine County had no fires this week either, but, like Hill County, had implemented a burn ban as well.

Of the surrounding counties on the call, Chouteau County seemed to have the worst week, having lost 300 acres of cropland and a great deal of equipment in a pair of combine-caused fires Friday and Saturday of last week.

Sheridan County also lost 350 acres to a fire this week, with a second having taken less than an acre, both caused by lightning.

Roosevelt County saw two fires as well, losing less than two acres, and Daniels County only had one small equipment fire.

Phillips County had one human-caused fire and Petroleum County had none.

Fergus County had the most fires, with 11 in the past week, with an estimated loss of 100 acres, though they said they were waiting on confirmation of that number.

All counties were urged to use caution as the fire risk worsens.