wildfires

The Elmo Fire, burning near the west shore of Flathead Lake is now estimated to be over 16,000 acres and about 10 percent contained.

Do you remember how bad the fire season was that year?

The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation continues to battle the Black Mountain Fire burning near the Sherman Gulch area.

Wildfire smoke has returned with a vengeance to most of Montana. Bozeman's AQI was as high as 175 on Monday morning...and that wasn't even the worst level in the state.

Here is an updated list of wildfires currently burning across Montana.

The Air Quality Index around southwest Montana was bad all weekend. Then it became even worse on Monday into seriously unhealthy levels.

Wildfire smoke has absolutely saturated the state of Montana. Missoula, Butte, Helena and Bozeman all have some of the worst air quality numbers in the entire United States, with some AQI numbers ranking worse than Jakarta, Indonesia or Delhi, India. That's really bad.

Scary hot temperatures are coming to several counties in Montana this weekend and into next week. An Excessive Heat Watch covers almost half of the state with triple digit temperatures coming for several days in a row.

Some counties in Montana are still experiencing fire weather conditions with high temps, low humidity and gusty winds prompting Fire Weather Watches to continue. Northeast Montana counties are still under a Watch.

Again today, dry thunderstorms and gusty winds are the enemies for the Bozeman area and many counties in Montana. Fire danger is quite high in some areas.

The enemy is dry thunderstorms through Wednesday morning for a good chunk of SW Montana including the entire Bozeman and Livingston areas.

Almost every county in Montana is experiencing dangerous fire conditions through at least Wednesday. Red Flag Warnings continue for most counties.