Cool Rainfall Gets Warm Welcome On Fire Lines Moisture Reaches Hot Spots In Idaho, Montana

Sat., Sept. 2, 2000

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

The cool weather that’s threatening rain over the Inland Northwest this holiday weekend has already brought relief to the fire lines in Idaho and Montana.

“It’s helped us a lot,” Kitty Mulkey, fire information officer with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, said on Friday.

Nearly 1.5 million acres of forest in Idaho and Montana has been consumed by fire, so rainfall was greeted as a godsend.

A wide swath of moisture stretching from central Idaho across the mountains of Montana was dropping rain in many locations on Friday.

Lyle Hammer, fire forecaster for the National Weather Service in Spokane, said his office received a report that more than a half-inch of rain helped douse flames in one central Idaho fire zone.

Lowell, Idaho, northeast of Grangeville, reported 0.48 inch of rain by early evening Friday.

Rain also helped firefighters at a blaze that had threatened residents of Red Lodge, Mont., Mulkey said. The Beartooth Highway from Yellowstone National Park to Red Lodge was reopened to traffic Friday, she said.

Also on Friday, a thundershower was reported at Helena late in the morning. Light rain was reported in Kalispell and Great Falls at midday.

A low pressure area off the Washington coast was circulating cool wet Pacific Ocean air across eastern Oregon and then northeast into the areas plagued by fires.

Hammer said thunderstorms have accompanied the rainfall, but they are wet and not likely to touch off new fires.

“Temperatures are coming down, and humidity is on the upswing,” he said. “It’s going to be better (for firefighters).”

Only a trace of rain was reported at Spokane International Airport by Friday evening, the 57th day of a dry spell that began three days after the July Fourth holiday period.

It was the longest rainless stretch since a 57-day dry spell in 1988.

Forecasters were calling for rain showers in Spokane and North Idaho today with a diminishing chance of more wet weather on Sunday and Monday.

Highs are forecast to reach 61 in Spokane today and Sunday, with lows in the mid-40s.

Clearing skies and warming temperatures won’t arrive until after the three-day holiday ends.

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