Smoke Forecast for Monday, June 23, 2025, 1:00 PM
Current Conditions
Heavy rain yesterday and throughout the weekend provided a needed break from the warm and dry conditions experienced earlier in spring. Some rain is expected in the northwestern part of the state today, accompanied by cooler temperatures, 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. The cool and breezy conditions helped disperse light residual smoke within the Helena area.
At 12:30 PM Monday, air quality at the Great Falls and Helena monitors was reported as Moderate.
Forecast
Today, a notable disturbance is bringing showers to Northwest Montana. These showers will slowly slide eastward throughout the day. The wind is mostly calm in the western part of the state. However, east of the divide, the wind speeds pick up from a southwest direction. These winds have potential to direct the Jericho Mountain Fire plume towards the greater Helena valley, but due to conditions, near-surface smoke should be limited. Overall, in Montana, we see some light smoke impacts from Washington in the northwest as well as Canadian smoke in the northeastern part of the state near Wolf Point and Sidney.
Tomorrow temperatures will rebound to slightly above average for this time of year and will remain there for the rest of the week and into this coming weekend. 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 the afternoon.
Southwest flow dominates Wednesday through the coming weekend, leading to scattered thunderstorm coverage most afternoons in the western portion of the state.
Ample rain and cooler temperatures from the weekend helped to limit fire activity, existing fire growth, and reduce the impacts from wildfire smoke throughout the state.
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 today.
Source: HRRR-smoke
Tags: Smoke Forecast 2025