Red flag warnings amid 42,000 lightning strikes

Portions of the Northern Rockies will experience some frantic firefighting in the next few days. Note the impact on the red states.

The Billings Gazette reports:

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for southeast Montana, parts of northwest South Dakota and parts of northcentral Wyoming on Wednesday morning. The warning will remain in effect from noon Wednesday to 6 a.m. Thursday. A cold front is expected to move into the area bringing strong, gusty winds with scattered thunderstorms and low humidity, impacting existing fires and potentially starting new ones.

And:

More than 42,000 lightning strikes were recorded across the Northern Rockies in a 36-hour period, sparking new wildfires in Montana and Idaho in addition to the dozens already burning across the region, fire officials said Tuesday. The lightning strikes from Sunday to Tuesday also started new wildfires in the Clearwater and Nez Perce national forests in Idaho, according to Bryan Henry of the Northern Rockies Coordination Center. There were at least three dozen active wildfires burning Tuesday in those two states and in northern Wyoming.

Looks like aspen restoration with extreme prejudice to me.