Smoke Forecast for Wednesday, June 18, 2025, 10:00 AM
Current Conditions
Much of Montana remains unaffected by wildfire smoke, but the Jericho Mountain Fire southwest of Helena continues to be active. As was the case on Tuesday, today the smoke plume from the fire is likely to affect communities to the immediate south of Helena.
As of this morning, the fire burned area is reported to be 150 acres.
At 9:00 AM Wednesday, air quality at the monitoring stations in Columbia Falls, Great Falls, Helena, Libby, and Seeley Lake was reported as Moderate.
Forecast
By early afternoon, increasing westerly winds will push the smoke plume from the Jericho Mountain Fire to the east. In addition to Rimini, which will experience the greatest wildfire smoke concentrations, communities along Interstate 15 between Montana City and Boulder are expected to be moderately affected by smoke into the evening.
On Thursday, winds out of the southwest will likely push the smoke plume into Helena by early afternoon, and smoke concentrations may increase in the late afternoon to early evening as temperatures cool.
Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, little to no smoke transport from outside Montana is expected to affect the state, so the focus still remains on the Jericho Mountain Fire.
Conditions can change quickly as weather could stimulate active fires and the likelihood of new starts increases. Please keep track of concentrations at todaysair.mtdeq.us or the Fire and Smoke Map.
The HRRR model predicts the Jericho Mountain Fire plume to stretch northeast into Helena by 2pm MDT (20 UTC) on Thursday.
Source: HRRR-smoke
Tags: Smoke Forecast 2025