Flathead Valley residents woke up Wednesday morning to thick smoke obscuring nearby mountains. Air quality monitors around the valley showed an Air Quality Index (AQI) in the unhealthy range of 151-200. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) website states that “members of the general public may experience health effects,” and recommends limiting outdoor exposure as much as possible.
The wildfire smoke, not normally seen in northwest Montana this early in the year, has blown south from a series of fires burning in northern Alberta. The province’s wildfire dashboard shows 92 active wildfires, with 27 listed as burning out of control. A state of emergency was declared in the province on May 6, and tens of thousands of Albertans have been evacuated from their homes this month.
More than 1.2 million acres in the province have burned since the start of the year.