Windmill Fire

Stillwater County, Montana · Wildfire

No longer active Official numbers updated Sep 10, 2026 (24 days ago)

First reported about 7 weeks ago

Metric	Last report	Now	Change
Size	4,194 acres Aug 22, 6:00 PM	4,253 acres Oct 4, 3:00 AM +59 acres was 4,194 acres · Aug 22, 6:00 PM	+59 acres in about 1 month
Containment	72% Aug 24, 5:00 PM	100% Oct 4, 3:00 AM +28 percent was 72% · Aug 24, 5:00 PM	+28 percent in about 1 month
Crew size	145 Aug 24, 5:00 PM	105 Oct 4, 3:00 AM −40 was 145 · Aug 24, 5:00 PM	−40 in about 1 month
Money spent	$2.7M Aug 24, 5:00 PM	$2.9M Oct 4, 3:00 AM +$200,000 was $2.7M · Aug 24, 5:00 PM	+$200,000 in about 1 month

Windmill Fire summary

The Windmill Fire is a wildfire near Stillwater County, Montana. It has burned about 4,253 acres (about 3,000 football fields). Crews have it fully contained, with a line all the way around it. It was first reported about 7 weeks ago. About 105 people are on it, run by a Type 3 Team.

Size: 4,253 acres
Containment: 100%
Discovered: August 19, 2026 (first reported about 7 weeks ago)
Cause: Not reported

The size and containment above are current as of Thursday, September 24th at 11:00 a.m. CDT.

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Weather & fire-spread conditions

No Red Flag Warning. The National Weather Service hasn't flagged this area for dangerous fire-spread conditions right now.

Hot, dry, and windy weather can help a fire grow; cool, calm, or wet weather helps crews. The tags below rate each day for fire spread — green is calm, red can push a fire.

A general fire-weather guide (wind matters most, then how dry it is, then heat), not a prediction of what a specific fire will do.

	Day	Night
Today	77°F · Sunny Wind 5 to 12 mph S · 0% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Warm Dry	50°F · Mostly Clear Wind 2 to 12 mph ESE · 0% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry
Friday	79°F · Partly Sunny Wind 2 to 8 mph S · 0% rain Wind: Calm Heat: Warm Dry	52°F · Partly Cloudy Wind 9 to 13 mph SW · 0% rain Wind: Breezy Heat: Cool Dry
Saturday	67°F · Sunny Wind 8 mph SE · 0% rain Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Dry	—

Forecast from the National Weather Service (weather.gov), pulled Thursday, September 24th at 11:02 a.m. CDT.

Could this fire move fast?

Weather isn't the only thing that changes how a fire moves. The ground matters too: how steep it is, and what's growing on it. These four numbers are for the exact spot where this fire started, not the whole fire. A big fire crosses a lot of different ground.

6° slope

Fire usually moves faster uphill than downhill. Heat and flame lean uphill, drying out the ground above the fire before it gets there.

Grass and shrub (GS2)

Grass with shrubs 1 to 3 feet tall. Fire moves fast, with medium-height flames.

0% tree canopy cover

The more tree cover above a fire, the easier it is for the fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. That's called a crown fire. Crown fires move faster, throw embers farther ahead of the fire, and are harder for crews to stop head-on.

4,866 ft elevation

Elevation by itself doesn't make a fire more or less dangerous. But it shapes the other three numbers here: what grows there, how dry things get, and what the weather does.

Elevation and slope from the USGS 3D Elevation Program; fuel type and canopy cover from LANDFIRE (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), pulled Thursday, September 10th at 3:52 p.m. CDT.

Who's on it

About 105 people are assigned to this fire, run by a Type 3 Team. The government rates it a Type 3 Incident. About $3 million has been spent on it so far.

The official feed reports the total headcount, not a breakdown by crew type.

Where to get live updates

We show the daily official picture. For minute-by-minute updates, evacuation orders, and maps, these do it best:

→ Watch Duty: real-time fire reporting and evacuations.
→ InciWeb: the government's official fire information site.

Nearby fires to Windmill Fire

No other active fires are near this one right now. It's on its own.

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