Scary

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/07/18/news/state/18-indicators.txt" >Indicators in some areas have reached record levels</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>Veteran Bureau of Land Management fire prevention officer Pat Mullaney figures Eastern Montana is a week to a week and a half from the start of fire season.<br />n<br />nTemperatures are soaring and fuels are drying, he said, and before long, firefighters catching 5- to 10-acre wildfires on their initial attack will find themselves building lines around 100-acre fires.<br />n<br />n"Then it will be 1,000 acres, and then we're off to the races," Mullaney said Tuesday.<br />n<br />nWith predictions of an extended stretch of temperatures in the high 90s and 100s, conditions are approaching extreme, he said.</blockquote><br />n<br />nHell, I don't have much more to say about this than what was written. For the next 10 days they are talking about upper 90's to low 100's for temperatures and it is dry and getting drier out there. It's real scary.<br />n<br />nI've seen conditions like this before and all I can do is hold my breath and hope there is no ignition source. Some times we've lucked out there and other times we haven't. It all depends on the weather. Some cool wet weather would be nice but it's not in the cards.<br />n<br />n<strong>Since this is a hill country one expects to find springs, but not to depend upon them; for when found they are often brackish and unwholesome, or maddening, slow dribbles in a thirsty soil. Mary Austin </strong>