Smoky Haze Falls on the Bridger-Teton National Forest

According to Mary Cernicek, public affairs officer of the Bridfer-Teton National Forest, said in a press release most of the north end of the Bridger-Teton has been covered in a smoky haze today that has many neighbors wondering if a new fire has started on the forest. According to fire meteorologists, the smoke is from west central British Columbia. The cloud arrived in Spokane, Washington Tuesday, and had settled on western Montana Tuesday night. The Jackson area was blanketed with the smoke around the noon hour Wednesday. Currently, there are no large fires burning in Western Wyoming / Eastern Idaho. The most recent fire on the Bridger-Teton is a hold-over lighting strike on the Big Piney Ranger District that is smoldering and not producing any significant smoke.

The national large fire map shows three fires in western Washington and one in Oregon which, combined, total over 20,000 acres. This fire activity is generating a large area of smoke throughout much of eastern Washington, Idaho, western Montana, and western Wyoming due to an upper level flow out of the northwest. A smoke image can be viewed at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/rsgis_fire/