A burst of wintry weather Wednesday greatly dampened the Arnica Fire in Yellowstone National Park, where fire crews were demobilizing while others worked to reopen a section of the Grand Loop Road that had been closed by the fire.
Rain started falling on the park around 6 a.m. Wednesday, and soon turned to snow, park officials reported.
"With the rapid change in weather in Yellowstone National Park to winter-like conditions, the Arnica Fire operations will be considerably downsized today. Fire fighters will be pulling all sprinkler systems and water supply equipment and moving back to Mammoth and the North Entrance," read a park release. "As conditions change, the National Park Service is making every effort to safely and rapidly reopen the road between Lake and West Thumb. This will entail removing the fire-damaged trees that pose a threat on and along the road to travelers. Heavy equipment will be used to rapidly remove these hazardous trees."
The fire, which was reported September 23 on the west side of Yellowstone Lake in the vicinity of Arnica Creek, was estimated by fire bosses to cover 10,700 acres. While the rain and snow were expected to douse the flames, some heavy fuels could smolder longer, they said.
At the height of the fire, the Park Service had 230 personnel protecting housing, lodges and historic park structures in the Lake Village and Bridge Bay areas.
Comments
My wife and I were at Jackson Hole, WY visiting the Grand Tetons National Park when this fire broke out. We thought the fire was at the Grand Tetons because the mountains were almost completely obscured by the smoke. The smoke was so bad that we left Jackson Hole a day early because we were both coughing so bad. We were surprised when we learned this smoke came from Yellowstone. I feel sorry for the Jackson Hole residents who had to breath that nasty smoke and for the disappointed Yellowstone visitors whose visits were turned upside down by the road closures caused by the fire.
I can't believe that only 1 month after our family's visit to Yellowstone that it's snowing! We had such great weather at the end of August, sunny in the 70's during the days! Weather sure changes fast in the mountains...
There are fires at Jackson Lake as well, and those are much more likely to be the smoke you see around Jackson town. We were at the West Thumb geyser basin on Monday 9/27 and while we could clearly see the smoke to the north across the lake, we could not smell it from that point. Perhaps the wind has changed, but on that day at least, none of the Arnica smoke was headed south.
There has been a fire in the Tetons going at the same time. As a counter-point to Colorado Cowboy, one blogger wrote this "Yellowstone pyrotechnics benefiting Mount Moran."
Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World
The smoke you saw was actually caused by a fire in the tetons, one edge of which was in the Leigh Lake area. There was also a prescribed burn in the mountains opposite the tetons. Both caused smokey conditions there.
We were in Yellowstone at Lake Lodge. Our reservations were for 9/25 through 9/28. Watching them put the pipes together and seeing the whole operation was really something. We talked to firefighters from Bozeman, MT and CA who were stationed to help protect the buildings. The smoke was really thick the afternoon and evening of 9/26 with ash flying through the air. We decided to go to Old Faithful on 9/27 but packed our stuff before we went just in case the road closed again and we couldn't get back. We watched helicopters dipping water from Bridge Bay to fight the fire and about 15 minutes after we came through to West Thumb, they closed the road. We watched the fire from West Thumb and could see a lot of flames and both white and black smoke. We ended up in West Yellowstone that night because the road was closed and left the park for Casper the following night. Seeing how they manage fires was the highlight of the trip.
CC,
It is more likely that the smoke over J hole originated from the Bearpaw fire in the park. My wife and I dayhiked the Paintbrush/ Cascade loop (In GTNP) last saturday 9/26. The smoke was present, but not overwhelming as we headed up. It didn't seem to affect some bugling elk along the way who headed towards the smoke. At about 8500 feet, we rose above the cloud and breathed the crisp air we expected upon embarking. As the day went on, the wind direction shifted, and the northern flank of the Grand which was veiled in gray, cleared out nicely, providing us resplendent views heading down to Cascade canyon from lake solitude.
The following day, we embarked on a 3 day journey to Heart Lake in Yellowstone's SE corner. In the afternoon we watched as the plume from the Arnica fire grew and shifted with corresponding changes in wind strength and direction from the trail as it rises above the Heart Lake Basin. For the better part of the day, the reach of the smoke tended to the ESE- towards the Thorofare part of the park. As nite fell, we noted difficulty in breathing, similar to what we encountered during the Paintbrush hike. Mt Sheridan could barely be seen behind us and the moon looked yellowy in the sky.
It was possible that some of the smoke may have reached the J hole that nite on a northerly wind.
Monday, we climbed Mt Sheridan on a mostly smokefree day. We hit the top (10,300') about 1 pm. This is a phenomenal vantage point in which to see both parks layed out in their entirety below. It was relatively calm on top with only slight breezes out of the west. The tetons were obscured, but still visible with billows of smoke filling the Hole. In Yellowstone, the Arnica fire was split into several plumes with lingering low smoke only covering the Bridge Bay area. A huge plume was rising in the valley east of Mts Doane and Stephenson at the far east end of the park.
We enjoyed a lovely clear nite, with a bright white moon hovering over us to the south (in the direction of the Tetons). Tuesday, we hiked out by way of the upper Snake River to the South boundary RS. A long, but lovely hike that we would recommend to any junkie who loves the Teton/Yellowstone backcountry. The air we breathed was high quality National Park excellent! About a mile from the end, we walked out of the woods on to a classic Yellowstone meadow borne of thermal and glacial origins, and were greeted by another view of the tetons. Once again, the pall of smoke seemed to be local in origin, as above us were storm clouds mixed in with strikingly clear and blue skies. None of Yellowstone's smoke was drifting south.
Check into the Bearpaw fire as the source of your disappointment.
Hope to see U out there next summer!
RT- Elmhurst Ill.
There were two fires. The one in the Teton N.P. is not the Arnica fire in Yellowstone. We came through Teton going to Yellowstone on Saturday 9/26 and saw both fires. There is also a very small fire in the mtns surround Gardiner, MT. We drove escorted from West Thumb through the fire area on the 26th. There was a helicopter scooping up lake water and dropping it on the fire boundary closest to the road. On the 27th, the loop road was open during the morning and I was quite surprised driving through the fire zone to see the fire about 300 yds from the road (or at least see smoke billowing that close to the road). I learned later that it had reached the road and they closed it again. The only way back to Gardiner/Mammoth was through West Yellowstone north to I90 and back down.
Back in August, we had been disappointed that we couldn't get late season reservations at the Lake Yellowstone hotel aso we booked a place in Gardiner instead. Boy did we get lucky. The smoke around the hotel was thick and blocked out the sky. I feel sorry for the guests that had to deal with it.