BOZEMAN – A cold core Pacific storm to bring much needed moisture to Montana this weekend into early next week.
A deep trough of Low-pressure will begin to dig into the Pacific NW Friday. This will strengthen a S-SW flow aloft over Montana and could push temperatures up into the 80s Friday afternoon. Watch for a few late afternoon thunderstorms Friday and a few could be strong to severe.
As the trough moves east it will spin into western Montana Saturday afternoon producing widespread showers and possible strong to severe thunderstorms Saturday afternoon. Some storms could produce very heavy rainfall so watch for rising river levels this weekend.
Once the Low spins in Saturday night into Sunday temperatures will drop sharply, in fact, snow is likely above 6,000’ Sunday into Monday. Some higher mountain peaks could see a substantial amount of heavy wet snow by Monday morning.
SW Montana has been well below normal on precipitation for the last 90 days and we need to see a cool and wet weather pattern as drought conditions are beginning to take a foot hold over the region. The latest drought monitor shows “moderate” drought conditions building over SW Montana east of the divide and pushing into Silver Bow County.
Forecast models at this time (could change) show most of SW Montana could see a quarter of an inch to one inch of moisture this weekend into early next week.
