Cora Creek Fire

Cascade County, Montana · Wildfire

Active Official numbers updated Sep 3, 2026 (12 days ago)
First reported about 2 weeks ago
Metric Now
Size
280 acres
Sep 16, 5:00 AM
Containment —
Crew size —
Money spent —

Cora Creek Fire and other nearby fires

🔥 Where this fire started Mostly contained Partly contained Containment not reported

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Cora Creek Fire summary

The Cora Creek Fire is a wildfire near Cascade County, Montana. It has burned about 280 acres (about 212 football fields). It was first reported about 2 weeks ago.

Size
280 acres
Containment
Not yet reported
Discovered
September 2, 2026 (first reported about 2 weeks ago)
Cause
Not reported

The size and containment above are current as of Wednesday, September 16th at 5:00 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 this fire will do.

Overnight

41°F · Patchy Fog

Wind 1 mph W · 14% chance of rain

Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Dry

Wednesday

62°F · Patchy Fog then Mostly Sunny

Wind 1 to 6 mph NW · 6% chance of rain

Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Dry

Wednesday Night

43°F · Mostly Clear

Wind 3 to 7 mph ESE · 0% chance of rain

Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Dry

Thursday

75°F · Sunny

Wind 5 mph NE · 0% chance of rain

Wind: Calm Heat: Warm Dry

Thursday Night

50°F · Slight Chance Rain Showers

Wind 0 to 6 mph SSE · 21% chance of rain

Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Some rain

Forecast from the National Weather Service (weather.gov), pulled Wednesday, September 16th at 5:03 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.

7° 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 (GR2)

Mostly grass, with a little dead plant matter mixed in.

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.

3,867 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 4:04 p.m. CDT.

Who's on it

This fire is small enough that no crew size or team has been posted yet. That's normal for a fire this size — those numbers show up once a fire is big enough to need a formal report.

Where to get live updates

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

Nearby fires to Cora Creek Fire

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

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