Western Montana’s newest fire:

This plume of smoke burst on the scene some time between one and four o’clock this afternoon. I drove down to check its location and found that the fire is about ten miles beyond the mountain range in the photo, putting it about 30 miles away. For more perspective, the peak in the center of the photo is about 6,800 in elevation (4,400 feet above the level of the river in the foreground). With the current high temperatures, extremely dry conditions and present wind velocity it will quickly become a very big fire.