Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Mountain states on wildfire alert




Montana can expect “a fast and furious but short” fire season in August, fueled by the tall grass that grew during the state’s wet and cool spring and is now drying, a federal official told Gov. Brian Schweitzer during a briefing Monday.

Meteorologist Mike Kreyenhagen, a meteorologist with the Northern Rockies Coordinating Group in Missoula, said the record wet and cool spring “eased, if not erased, the drought concerns we were looking at.”

Schweitzer reiterated that it is Montanans’ personal responsibility to protect their homes and to create defensible zones around them if they live in what’s known as the “wildland urban interface” or near wildlands such as forests, grasslands, parks, mountains and watersheds. About 4 percent of Montana homes fall in that category.

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