Firefighters battling the worst blazes in nearly 50 years in the western United States faced increasingly gusty winds in two states on Sunday as the number of large fires burning rose to 98. Fire officials said the number of fires was up from 94 late Saturday. We kind of broke even last night.
Unstable winds increase unpredictable fire behavior.
Temperatures should drop this week across much of the West, which should aid firefighters, she said. Some much-needed rain could also arrive starting on Tuesday, but the storms expected in the northwest also mean there is an increased chance of lightning that could spark new blazes. Currently, there are fires raging on well over 1 million acres across the United States, with the biggest blazes in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. In Montana, the hardest hit state, the governor has declared a disaster area. The state's 30 large fires are burning on more than 530,000 acres, about half of the U.S. total, and stretch from timber-filled mountains to rolling hills.