Overnight humidity helping fight Elk Fire despite warming trend

DAYTON, Wyo. — Very few remnants of snow persist along the northern-facing slopes in the Bighorn National Forest to help combat the Elk Fire, which is now just over 50% contained. However, some overnight humidity and brief upcoming weather patterns might assist in suppression efforts.

Natural moisture is especially useful in fighting wildfires because it is a resource not feasibly matched by human efforts. Responding to comments on a post about monitoring hot spots via aircraft, the U.S. Forest Service – Bighorn National Forest said that there simply isn’t a way to dump water over a 96,000-acre fire in an effective and financially possible way.

“Dropping water on a fire is ineffective without firefighters on the ground to properly use the water to mix with soil and put out hotspots,” the Forest Service said on Facebook. “Our firefighters are being deployed on higher priority tasks like prepping fire lines around the fire perimeter to guard against any future fire growth.”

Therefore, it is unlikely that suppression efforts are going to take crews within the fire itself. Instead, according to the Forest Service in the park’s most recent Facebook update, crews are working around the fire to secure nearby structures and strengthen the defenses immediately around the blaze.

With the help of resources like aircraft and dozers, crews around the entire fire are still hard at work doing just that. In particular, Division I, stationed just southwest of Sheridan, has seen a lot of success. There, 90% of suppression repair is completed on established dozer lines.

Other areas, according to the Forest Service, are facing terrain difficulties and are simultaneously struggling with downed timber in vulnerable areas. For a comprehensive description on what each division is currently doing, see the Bighorn National Forest’s Facebook update for Oct. 22.

Though crews can’t fully rely on the weather, snow and rain do help. The area saw 90% humidity recovery overnight and can expect some mild weather changes later in the week.

National Weather Service predicting rain

The National Weather Service in Billings, Montana, which provides coverage for the Dayton area, reported light showers around Dayton this morning. Tomorrow, according to both the NWS in Billings and the Bighorn National Forest, will be significantly hotter than today — by up to 10 degrees — and cooler later in the evening.

The service added that showers will become likely again early Wednesday and into Thursday morning. Before noon Thursday, the likelihood of rain is about 50%.

Following the plausible rain on Thursday, the area won’t see another chance at precipitation until Sunday night.

Closures and evacuations

According to the Bighorn National Forest and the Sheridan County Government Facebook pages, no changes are currently being made to road closures and evacuation order statuses.

This means that roads like U.S. Highway 14 are still closed between Burgess Junction and Dayton. To the south, Red Grade Road — the home of many of the popular recreational areas in the Bighorns — and County Road 89 from Dayton are still closed as well.

The map below shows the current evacuation order statuses for areas in Sheridan County near the Elk Fire. Note that it remains the same as Oct. 21 since no changes have been made today to evacuation orders.

For more details on the Elk Fire, including suppression efforts and closures, see the Bighorn National Forest Facebook page.