Fire season arrived in our neck of the woods yesterday. There have been a bunch of big fires burning west of us, over by Missoula, but until now we’d managed to duck the worst of it. A lightning strike set of a small blaze Friday afternoon and yesterday, the winds kicked up and it blew. Those aren’t clouds in the photo, it’s smoke. And you can’t really see from my point-and-shoot, but the clouds of smoke were tinged a weird orange from within, from the gasses burning inside them. Very spooky.

And this morning we’re swimming in a thick layer of smoke. I actually woke up in the night and had to close the windows because the smell of smoke was so strong. The sun came up an orange ball this morning, and the air is quite awful. The weather forecast shows a few isolated storms tomorrow and Wednesday, but if they come with lightning, they’re almost more trouble than they’re worth.