It may bring welcome rain - some areas are forecast for as much as a quarter of an inch. But it's the winds that accompany the change that had people on edge Saturday.
No one needs rain more than the people working the Blackfoot Lake Complex east of Kalispell. The Beta Lake and the Doris Ridge fires, a threat to Martin City a week ago, grew together on Saturday, becoming the Beta/Doris and weighing in at 4,852 acres. The Blackfoot Lake fire grew from 6,823 acres on Friday to 11,430 acres Saturday night. That was such a big jump that the fire information officers called to make sure it wasn't a typing error.
They've had no wind for a week, she said, so the fires have sat and baked the moisture out of the forests.
There at camp, they hear the phrase "watch-out situation" about a thousand times an hour, she said, with the expected moisture forecast downgraded from "significant rain" to "scattered."
"Before we get any rain, we could get major winds," Ayers said. "This weekend, everybody's on pins and needles."
Elsewhere on fire lines in western Montana:
Robert Complex: The 10 fires in the Robert Complex in Glacier National Park now total 107,409 acres, up almost 6,000 acres from Friday, said information officer Sue Exline. There's no weather yet, but the forecasters were looking at computer models that said increased winds in the afternoon Sunday and rain later at night.
This is the "weather-changing pattern," Exline said, because there is no high-pressure system behind it, as there has been through the fire season. That means that whatever happens this weekend, the pattern in general will shift to high humidities and lower temperatures. Humidities above 20 percent and winds below 20 mph moderate fire behavior.
"This isn't going to put fires out," she said. "But it is going to moderate behavior."
Fish Creek: At Fish Creek, the complex of fires is 35,900 acres. The forecast says rain will come at 10 p.m. Sunday, and it will rain all night, said information officer Andy Williams.
"If we can get through tomorrow, we'll be in good shape," he said.
"The weather has changed," he said. "There's high clouds, and the wind has sort of freshened a bit. There's a sense that something is changing."
Petty Creek is still a recommended evacuation area, and school buses aren't running there.
"If the fire gets up and running, it could be down in the drainages right away," Williams said. "Tomorrow is going to be a critical day."
Cooney Ridge: At the Cooney Ridge fire between Clinton and Florence, fire has burned 25,100 acres and is still challenging firefighters. Work against fire inside the Welcome Creek Wilderness went well Saturday, but the terrain is very steep and rugged, said information officer Garry Jenkins. The humidity was just low enough for some successful burnouts to strengthen lines, he said.
"They're using helicopters and bucket drops as best they can to corral that fire," Jenkins said.
Wind is a worry, he said, with isolated thunderstorms forecast but only one-tenth to two-tenths of an inch or rain in the picture.
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