© U.S. Forest Service Photo/InciWebIn southeastern Montana, a wind-driven wildfire ripped through parched forest and grasslands, forcing the evacuation of an undetermined number of ranches and homes, officials said Thursday.
As the country keeps its eyes trained on Houston, another natural disaster is ravaging states far to the north.
With red flag warnings covering 200,000 square miles of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and the Dakotas saying the danger for new wildfires is imminent, firefighters continue to battle blazes that have burned huge swaths of land.
This summer has been particularly dry and windy for our northern neighbors and a lack of moisture and unfortunate weather has led to hundreds of wildfires burning across Montana, Idaho and northern California.
Rainfall at this point hasn't been much help; lightning strikes on Wednesday sparked at least 40 more in a state already on fire,
according to the Great Falls Tribune. High winds are pushing the fires and helping them spread.
Firefighter Brent M. Witham of Mentone, California,
died in early August after a tree fell on the 29-year-old.
Smoke is so heavy in Montana that planes couldn't fly over the fires to check their size or status, the
Tribune said on Wednesday.
Back in July, Gov. Steve Bullock
declared a state of emergency in Montana. The declaration was issued July 24, sometime after the federal government denied the state's request for aid.
Three days later, the feds reversed their decision and sent FEMA in to help.
Comment: Images of Irma's possible path:
Irma's path is still uncertain - normal for hurricanes while they're still traversing the Atlantic towards the coast. On average, there's a 194-mile margin of error in five-day forecasts. As usual, predictions are only as good as the models and initial conditions used to produce them. And no model is perfect. For example, here are the predicted tracks from Sept. 1st (NOAA):
Update (Sept. 3)
The Weather Channel reports that Irma has strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane. Additional strengthening is expected as Irma moves westward in the week ahead. Irma will move close to the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico by the middle of this week, and then near or north of Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas late week into next weekend.
One such fake forecast has been shared on social media almost 40,000 times. The official NOAA emblem was cut and pasted to make it look genuine. It depicts Irma's predicted path to impact the U.S.