Summertime should be a great time to be outdoors in Montana, with warm weather and sunshine in a state full of natural splendors. But wildfire smoke often forces people to stay indoors.
Bailey Bliss lives in Butte, a western Montana city surrounded by mountains on three sides. Some days in the summer, thick smoke fully obscures the mountains. “There are times you can’t go outside in the summertime,” she says.
“There’s no point in going outside if you can’t breathe.”
She notices more issues with runny noses, irritated eyes and coughing when wildfire smoke is in the air. Her father-in-law, who uses supplemental oxygen, can’t leave the house on such days without a respirator.
A Montana resident for the last 12 years, Bailey looks forward to hiking and camping in the summer, but she says wildfire smoke makes her consider spending those months elsewhere.
“The air quality in Montana is bad enough that if I could leave in the summers, I would.”
