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Real-Time Smoke
Particulate Sampling
Fire Storm 2000

Fire Storm 2000

The fire season of 2000 shaped up as one of the biggest in the last four decades. Fire scorched significant portions of northern Idaho and western Montana from mid-July to mid-September. By August 14, the fires in the Bitterroot Valley had burned more than 120,000 acres. Numerous smoke alerts and advisories were issued for the communities in the Bitterroot Valley and for Missoula. By the end of August, fires had burned 307,000 acres of the 1.6-million-acre Bitterroot National Forest and an additional 49,000 acres of State and private forests (figure 2). Heavy rains and snow at higher elevations during early September allowed firefighters to effectively manage the wildfires. A total of 900,000 acres had been burned in Montana. Another 1,250,000 acres had been burned in Idaho.

Image of a map of western Montana and Idaho showing the locations of Missoula, Hamilton, and Helena.
Figure 2—The cumulative burned areas in central Idaho
and western Montana beginning July 4 to September 17, 2000
(available on the Internet).

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