Valley Smoke

That familiar smoky haze has returned to the Missoula valley and meteorologist Luke Robinson with the National Weather Service Office in Missoula said early this morning that the smoke is still coming from a combination of wildfires and controlled burns in Idaho and extreme Western Montana.

An unidentified male drowned in the Clark Fork River near the Alberton Gorge when a large group of canoes capsized. The male's name, age and hometown were not released.

The dense smoke staining the Missoula Valley the past few days is not from fires in Montana, but in Washington State.

UPDATE -- 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, July 8. The National Weather Service is predicting wet thunderstorms with the potential for flash flooding Thursday and Friday that could continue through the weekend. The southern Bitterroot Valley could be hardest hit.