Rolling Dog Farm Blog

We’ve been really lucky so far this summer … no fires near us, no severe thunderstorms with lightning, and not the same ferocious heat — day after day above 100 degrees F (38 degrees C) — like we had last year.  But today the National Weather Service office in Missoula issued a Red Flag Warning for western Montana and northern Idaho that included us here in Powell County.  The image above is what the map on the National Weather Service Web site looked like this afternoon.  Any time we see all that red on the map we cringe.  The Red Flag Warning  read:

A RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT MDT /11 PM
PDT/ TONIGHT.

INSTABILITY AND MID LEVEL MOISTURE HAS LEAD TO THE FORMATION OF SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON. THE LOWER ATMOSPHERE REMAINS FAIRLY DRY. THUS THUNDERSTORMS ARE PRODUCING LITTLE PRECIPITATION. GUSTY…ERRATIC WINDS AND FREQUENT LIGHTNING CAN ALSO BE EXPECTED NEAR THESE STORMS.

A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW…OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS…LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY…AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL.

Last year — ironically this same week in August — I wrote a post about our fire plan and included a photo of our fire trailer.  You can read that post here.

What this means for us is that we brought in all the horses from pasture this afternoon and will keep them safe in the corrals next to the barns for the next day or two, until we see what happens with the weather.  Meanwhile, we’re keeping a close eye on the National Weather Service radar to track developing thunderstorms.  Oh, and we’re crossing our fingers a lot!