Smoke Forecast for Friday, June 20, 2025, 10:00 AM
Current Conditions
Rain late in the day yesterday provided a needed break from the warm and dry conditions from the past few days. Cooler temperatures have arrived across Western Montana this morning, which may help limit fire behavior from the 351-acre Jericho Mountain Fire southwest of Helena and the 140-acre Wolf Syrup Fire between Libby and Kalispell. Currently, the cool and breezy conditions are helping disperse light residual smoke within the Helena area.
At 9:00AM Friday, air quality at the Great Falls, Helena, and Libby monitors was reported as Moderate.
Forecast
Today, northwesterly winds will direct the Jericho Mountain Fire plume to the south of Helena between Montana City and Boulder, though widespread rain showers across Western Montana will likely limit the ground-level impacts of wildfire smoke.
In the early morning hours tomorrow, light smoke from fires in Washington is projected to move into Lincoln County, but this smoke will disperse by mid-morning. As the day progresses, steady rain showers will continue in the Northwest corner of the state, and winds from the west will increase.
On Sunday, a shift to more northwesterly winds will bring even cooler temperatures and more precipitation. In the area of the Jericho Mountain Fire, the snow level will drop to 6,000 feet, and temperatures may only reach the mid to high 30s.
Temperature will rebound on Monday and increase throughout next week, but ample rain and cooler temperatures over the next few days is expected to limit fire activity and reduce the impacts from wildfire smoke.
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 limited wildfire smoke across Montana around 4pm MDT/22 UTC on Saturday.
Source: HRRR-smoke
Tags: Smoke Forecast 2025