Smoke Forecast for Thursday, July 10, 2025 9:30 AM
Current Conditions
Smoke and haze from regional wildfires continues to spread into Montana from fires burning in Canada and over the Pacific Northwest. A weak front moved into the state Wednesday night, and it will provide much cooler air on Thursday.
The Pomas fire burning in the western Washington Cascades continues to exhibit extreme fire behavior. The Pomas fire has burned 3,308 acres. The Hope fire near Marble, Washington, just south of the Canadian border expanded quickly again on Wednesday, exhibiting active fire behavior. It has already burned through 3,500 acres. Lastly, the Western Pines fire burning in Washington just west of Spokane has grown to 4,000 acres. There are also numerous active wildfires burning in Oregon and northern California. These regional wildfires combined with the unusually warm temperatures will contribute to increasing surface smoke over the region.
At 9:00 AM Thursday, Great Falls’ air quality is Moderate.
By Friday afternoon, the HRRR smoke model shows some surface smoke moving into southwest Montana and the northeast corner of the state from regional wildfires.
Source: HRRR-smoke
Forecast
The dry and hot weather pattern across the region has allowed numerous wildfires over Washington, Oregon, and northern California to grow dramatically over the last 48-hours. A weak cold front dropped south out of Canada on Wednesday. It will provide slightly cooler temperatures for the region and a few scattered showers over northwest Montana on Thursday.
A zonal flow returns Friday and into the weekend. It will allow a gradual moderating trend for the region. The warmer and drier conditions will generate more active fire behavior on existing wildfires and a gradual uptick in surface smoke production. Some surface smoke could clip the northeast corner of the state in the coming days from wildfires burning in Saskatchewan.
Fuel moistures around the Treasure State are expected to dry out in the coming days. Apart from northwest Montana, these fuel moistures will remain drier than average through the weekend. Any wildfires that do start across western Montana could quickly grow in these conditions. Stay tuned!
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.
Thursday morning’s satellite reveals some smoke over northeast Montana while a trough is producing clouds and even some rain over northwest parts of the state.
Source: NOAA
Tags: Smoke Forecast 2025