Despite a cold front pushing strong winds over the Sheep Fire burning about two miles south of Essex, the flame front had not advanced significantly since it forced the closure of U.S. 2 on Thursday at the southern edge of Glacier National Park.

The road remains closed to through traffic between West Glacier and East Glacier Park, although local traffic and those with lodging reservations in the area are permitted to travel through.

Trees torched and smoke billowed steadily Friday from the 428-acre blaze, clearly visible from the Goat Lick pullout about two miles southwest of Essex on U.S. 2. Jonathan Moor, a public information officer for the fire team managing the fire, said the wind channeling through the canyon made fire behavior hard to predict.

“The way these canyons funnel the wind and switch it around, it can go any which way in this general spot,” he said.

The fire was still about three-quarters of a mile from the road by Friday night, advancing slowly down the ridge with some spotting.

Watching the six columns of smoke visible from the highway pullout, operations section chief Rick Moreno explained that the fire management team had a range of plans based on different scenarios, with the wind direction being a major factor.

“It’s a 360-degree rotation,” he said. “You can kick the dirt at the lower elevations and it might be blowing west, and you can see the treetops and they’re blowing north, while up on the fire the smoke column is standing straight up.”

But given the strain on firefighting resources both regionally and throughout the Western U.S., the number of available personnel at any given time is another big question mark.