Washington Smoke Hits Montana Causing “Unhealthy” Warning in Lincoln County

A new relationship between the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the National Weather Service led to the first NWS unhealthy air quality conditions alert for Montana. DEQ air quality meteorologist Kristen Martin says most of the smoke isn’t even from Montana fires.

"Our Libby Monitor measured unhealthy air quality due to smoke coming in from wildfires in Washington state and other parts of the west coast," Martin said. "The Glacier Rim fire is causing impact to the east of Glacier and not too many right now, most of the smoke is caused by transported smoke."

The unhealthy warning was just for Lincoln County. Martin says that, despite the drought, Western Montana has had good air quality most of the summer.

"In Western Montana, we had some cooler temperatures and some wetter weather moving through in July that allowed us to have good air quality for awhile in July which is a little unusual for Montana," Martin said. "But in the beginning of July, Eastern Montana had a lot of smoking coming down from Canada so it depends where you are in the state."

Smoke was thick enough to block view of the mountains in most of Missoula yesterday, Missoula Health department spokeswoman Sarah Cofield said the air quality was moderate, unless you were outside a lot.

"The smoke concentration in Missoula are generally moderate, however, because it has  been sitting around and sticking here for so long even that smaller amount of smoke near the ground its accumulative affect can be unhealthy for sensitive groups," Cofield said.

A new, cooler weather system moved into the region last night. Martin says it is uncertain whether the new system will bring more smoke in or help disperse the smoke that is already here.