Open burning is currently prohibited in Cascade County.

Ron Scott, county disaster and emergency services coordinator, closed open burning as of midnight until further notice due to current weather conditions.

The county is under red flag warning now, Scott said.

Scott said he had a meeting today about fire conditions and is waiting to see how conditions progress before making a decision on implementing other fire restriction in Cascade County.

He said a few weeks ago everything was pretty green, but has quickly dried out despite recent rain.

He said there were seven fires across the county last week.

You can check the status of open burning/burn permits in any Montana county here.

According to the National Weather Service in Great Falls, the red flag warning is in effect until 9 p.m. July 25 for low humidity and gusty winds.

NWS said in a weather forecast that strong west winds and low humidity will continue through this evening, improve slightly overnight, but return Thursday afternoon.

Another period of windy, low humidity conditions is expected Saturday and Sunday as well, with little to no precipitation over the next seven days, according to NWS. The best chance of any storms is mainly south of Great Falls on Saturday and again Monday into Tuesday, according to the NWS forecast.