WEATHER DISCUSSION: Hot temperatures and dry weather will become the norm across North Central Montana this weekend. Highs remained hot in the 30s and 35s, and lows back to 10s tonight. Increasing clouds this afternoon will give way to mostly cloudy skies this evening, with a chance of rain, mainly in Central and SW MT tonight. Expect slowly increasing winds through Monday morning.
A shortwave aloft will continue to produce scattered showers and storms along southwest Montana, which will begin to dissipate as they cross the plains this evening. Regional wildfires continue to bring smoke across southwest and northern Montana. A hazy night and hazy Monday are expected.
Scattered rain showers will continue throughout the night and into Monday morning across North Central MT as the shortwave moves east. Monday afternoon will become drier and winds will also increase. Increased wind speeds with gusts up to 35 mph and low relative humidity levels dropping below -10°C raise concerns for critical fire weather along the Rocky Mountain Front. A Red Flag (Pink) Warning will be in effect Monday afternoon through 8pm.
Another small disturbance in the upper air layer along with increasing humidity will trigger another round of isolated to scattered showers and thunderstorms across the region on Tuesday afternoon. The second half of the week will see cooler temperatures and widespread precipitation, with highs back to 15 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
SUNDAY NIGHT: Widespread haze. Decreasing cloud cover with lows between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius and increasing winds of 8 to 16 km/h until Monday morning.
MONDAY: Widespread haze and smoke. Mostly sunny, then mostly clear with highs between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius and lows between 10 and 10 degrees Celsius. Winds from 16 to 32 km/h with gusts up to 56 km/h.
TUESDAY: Slight chance of rain. Mostly sunny, then mostly cloudy, with highs around 27°C and lows around 10°C. Winds 8 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
WEDNESDAY: Showers likely. Partly sunny, then cloudy with highs around 21 degrees and lows around 4/10 degrees. Winds 8 to 16 km/h with gusts up to 32 km/h.
THURSDAY: Showers and thunderstorms. Cloudy with highs around 15°C and lows around 4°C. Wind speed from 8 to 16 km/h with gusts up to 32 km/h.
FRIDAY: Chance of showers and mostly cloudy with highs around 15°C and lows around 4°C.
SATURDAY: Chance of rain. Mostly sunny, then partly cloudy with highs around 21 degrees and lows around 4/10 degrees.