The Montana Fire Report: Sept. 6 – 13

Widespread rainfall across Montana Wednesday and Thursday could mean an early end for the 2024 fire season. Though blazes continue to burn throughout the state, the forecast includes high humidity and mild winds, dampening fire spread and limiting the potential for new fire starts.

Though she said she was cautious to draw definitive conclusions about weather patterns, Jen Kitsmiller, a National Weather Service meteorologist based out of Missoula, identified the meteorological conditions as likely signs western’s Montana’s fire season is turning toward a close. 

“It’s not totally abnormal to have something like this bring an end to fire season,” Kitsmiller said. 

The precipitation stymied western Montana’s major ongoing blazes. The Railroad and Daly fires, burning near each other along the border between Ravalli County and Granite County, more than doubled in size prior to the heavy rainfall. According to Public Information Officer Lynn McAloon, precipitation worked in combination with firefighting efforts to prevent additional fire growth. Personnel at Ravalli County’s other major blazes, including the 3,200-acre Sharrott Creek and 6,700-acre Johnson fires, say the rain had a similar dampening effect. 

And while eastern Montana still faces thunderstorms with the potential to start new fires, cooler temperatures and increased precipitation will also reduce wildfire risk on the plains.

Among the fires still active in eastern Montana is the Short Draw Fire, a 30,500-acre blaze in Montana’s southeastern corner, which is still facing wildfire-prone weather. Originating in Campbell County, Wyoming, the young blaze, which was reported Wednesday, bears an early resemblance to the Remington Fire, a now-190,000 acre blaze that also began in Wyoming before spreading northward into Montana. The Remington Fire now spans Powder River, Big Horn and Rosebud counties. It is considered almost entirely contained.

The Remington Fire, one of the largest wildfires to burn in Montana since 2017, accounts for roughly half of the 354,000 acres burned across the state over the course of the summer.

In terms of acres burned, the 2024 fire season currently ranks as the fourth-worst since 2015, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center and Montana Department of Natural Resources. In contrast, roughly 750,000 acres, more than twice the number of acres consumed this season, burned in 2021. Roughly 1.3 million acres burned in 2017, the worst fire season in the recent past.