It's the last day of meteorological summer. Gosh that was a long, hot summer...Right? Well not exactly. June was wetter and cooler than normal for just about everywhere. Helena, Great Falls, Havre, Lewistown, and Glasgow were 2 to 3.5 Degrees below normal with above average precitation, mainly from a record breaking rain and snow storm at the end of the month. July started off cool and wet, but the middle and end of the month were extremely hot.
July 12th was one of the hottest days on record for Montana as places challenged their all-time record high temperature. Helena, Great Falls, Havre, Lewistown, Cut Bank and Glasgow were 3-5 degrees above normal for the month. Cut Bank and Havre were more than an inch of rain below normal but Glasgow was more than 2 inches above normal. Most other areas were within an inch of normal.
August started off hot but the month mellowed with timely rain. Helena, Great Falls, Havre, Cut Bank and Glasgow had slightly below normal temperatures for the month. Helena and Great Falls had slightly above normal rain. Cut Bank cut into its summer deficit with more than an inch above normal.
So where does that put us for the entire meteorological summer? Pretty close to average. Helena, Great Falls, Havre, Lewistown, and Cut Bank finished 1-2 degrees above normal. Glasgow was slightly below normal. And precipitation was just above average in Helena, about 2" above normal in Great Falls and Glasgow, slightly below average in Lewistown and Cut Bank, but over an inch below normal in Havre. And most of Montana's river basins finished close to average with above average rain for most of southern Montana. Wildfire acreage burned is also running below normal.
A pretty average summer for Big Sky Country in 2026. I'm meteorologist Curtis Grevenitz, and now you're a little more weatherwise.
