Air quality in Missoula on Sunday ranged from “moderate” to “unhealthy” for sensitive groups, and the Missoula City-County Health Department said the cumulative air quality for the day as a whole was “unhealthy.”Air quality conditions deteriorated in the Bitterroot Valley, where it was categorized as “unhealthy,” and the cumulative air quality “very unhealthy.”Although Sunday evening brought a short reprieve from the smoke – thanks to a northwest wind that blew into the region – expect a smoky Monday and upcoming week, said Jen Pallister, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula.A ridge of high pressure is expected to move in, which will trap the smoke in the Missoula and Bitterroot valleys, Pallister said.Expect the smoke to linger most of the week as there is no new weather system on the horizon that would push it out, she said.

via Unhealthy air continues in Missoula, Bitterroot; expected to linger.