Aug. 31, 2026: Wildfire Smoke Air Quality Update
Posted on August 31, 2026
The current air quality across Missoula County is Good to Moderate. See current air quality conditions at Fire.AirNow.Gov.
Although slight, wildfire smoke continues to impact Missoula County. Overnight, smoke from local fires settled into the valleys; expect this diurnal trend of air quality worsening throughout the evening and improving throughout the day to continue as fires grow in the next few days. The 5,486 acre Moose Mountain Fire will continue to send smoke east into Frenchtown and Missoula. Fire activity could increase the next couple of days due to warming and low humidities as high pressure builds over the Northern Rockies. This will be followed by rainy weather throughout the rest of the week that could dampen fire activity.
GOES West satellite imagery from 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 31, 2026
Further south, several fires both east and west of Hamilton are causing air quality that is Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. To the west, the Selway Wilderness Fires consists of the Cascade (6,800 acres), Grotto (3,171 acres), Wolf Creek (2,280 acres), and Three Links (760 acres) Fires. Closer by just to the southeast of Hamilton, the Nature Grove Fire (1,141 acres) continues to grow while the Black Bear Fire (2126 acre) is only exhibiting minimal growth.
As this fire season wraps up, take a minute to think about how you may want to prepare for next year. What supplies do you want on hand? What questions do you still have that weren’t answered? Many of these questions were answered in various news articles on air quality and wildfire smoke. Here are a few of our favorite articles from this summer:
• Smoke plumes have unique fingerprints. They’re all bad for your health, Montana Free Press
• Why does wildfire season smell like this? MTPR
• Haze of our lives: Wildfire smoke wreaks havoc on Missoula air quality, The Pulp
• Wildfire Smoke Air Quality Update: Regulatory monitors and Purple Air sensors, MPH
Continue to learn about how you can prepare for wildfire smoke at MontanaWildfireSmoke.org! Your local air quali-kitty, Mushu, is starting to see the light at the end of the wildfire season tunnel. Fall is just around the corner!