Another windy day today with peak wind gusts exceeding 45 mph in a lot of locations, and a few spots along the Rocky Mountain Front saw wind gusts over 70 mph at times today! There have also been scattered rain and mostly mountain snow showers around today as a disturbance has been passing through our area.
Gusty to strong winds will continue this evening and early tonight, but the wind will gradually weaken as the night goes on. The strongest wind this evening and tonight will be in central and eastern portions of north-central Montana as gusts between 40 and 60 mph are expected. The HIGH WIND WARNING has been allowed to expire for western portions of north-central Montana, but it remains in effect for eastern portions of north-central Montana until 5am Saturday.
There are also going to be some scattered snow and rain showers around this evening and tonight, generally before midnight, in north-central Montana east of I-15 as a disturbance continues to impact the state. Along the eastern half of the Hi-Line, light snow accumulations of up to an inch are possible through tomorrow morning. In the Bears Paw mountains, up to 5” of snow is possible through tomorrow morning. Slippery road conditions are possible tonight and tomorrow morning along the eastern half of the Hi-Line due to this snow as well as today’s precipitation freezing overnight, so please use caution when driving.
Elsewhere, it will be mainly dry tonight with partly cloudy to mostly clear skies. It is also going to be cool tonight as lows are going to be in the mid to upper 20s and low to mid 30s, with wind chills in the teens and 20s.
Here is the detailed forecast:
Tomorrow, in northeastern Montana, it is going to be mostly cloudy with a few lingering snow showers around, generally during the morning. In north-central and central Montana, it is going to be partly to mostly sunny and dry tomorrow. Tomorrow is also going to be the cooler day of the weekend as highs are only going to be in the 40s and low 50s (30s in northeastern Montana). There is also going to be a breeze around tomorrow along the northern half of the Rocky Mountain Front and in central portions of north-central Montana as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 20 mph. Elsewhere, there is only going to be a little breeze (5-20 mph) around tomorrow.
Sunday will feature beautiful weather as we are going to have partly cloudy skies, dry conditions, and warmer temperatures as highs are going to be in the 50s and mid to upper 40s. There is also only going to be a little breeze around in most locations on Sunday, but it will be gusty along the Rocky Mountain Front as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 25 mph.
An upper-level ridge is then going to provide us with really nice weather for most of next week. Next week, we are going to have mostly cloudy skies on Monday and partly cloudy skies Tuesday through Thursday. It is also going to be mainly dry and mild next week as highs are going to be in the 50s and low to mid 60s. Monday and Tuesday will feature gusty winds as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 30 mph. There is then going to be little wind around on Wednesday and Thursday.
Isolated rain and mountain snow showers are then possible on Friday as a disturbance begins to impact our area. It is also going to be breezy and mild on Friday as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 10 and 20 mph, and highs are going to be in the 50s.
