Blue Skies Not In The Forecast Soon
Author: MT 43 News Staff Reporter
Blue Skies Not in the Forecast Soon
MT 43 News Staff Reporter
You just cannot ignore it any longer: smoke from the Idaho and California fires is terrible.
Kris Maloney, who lives east of town, hit the nail on the head: “The smoke is the worst it has been since we moved here!”
Monday’s weather report from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality showed us “unhealthy” air quality: that is, they issued an alert for Broadwater County along with most of Montana. The smoke, carried by the wind, from fires in those states was forecast to last through Tuesday, and into Wednesday when a wide-spread front might bring much-needed rain.
The department warns people with respiratory or heart diseases, or those over age 65 and children to refrain from being outside for any length of time due to the high particulate in the air when the department issues an air quality alert.
According to our local weather person, Jeff Ross, many areas of the county have had a little over seven inches of rain, compared to more than 13 inches in 2023. On the east side of the lake, he said, they have received only six inches of rain.
Still, we are lucky we have had few fires in the county and that our emergency service people have been able to put those fires out quickly.
Article Images
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Image 1 Caption: Air Quality Alert
Image 2 Caption: Dense smoke hid the mountains while giving the sun an ominous red glow in Townsend Monday morning.
Photo by Sarah Tallwhiteman
