A HIGH WIND WARNING has been issued for the Rocky Mountain Front.
A HIGH WIND WATCH has been issued for parts of central Montana.
A WINTER STORM WATCH has been issued for northwest Montana.
This seems like it has been the year of the "wind" with several major wind events that have caused damage and fires across Montana. Wind will be the dominant weather feature through the weekend. The next storm will start to make it's presence felt on Friday with increasing clouds and wind. There will be more sunshine farther east. Highs will be seasonably cold in the 20s and 30s. Wind will intensify Friday night into Saturday. Saturday will be especially windy with gusts possibly up to 100mph along the Rocky Mountain Front. There will be some snow on the Rocky Mountain Front making for near blizzard conditions at times there. Elsewhere, gusts across the plains could top 60-70mph. Temperatures will be in the 30s and 40s, but there will not be much snow in the lower elevations. Travelers west of the Continental Divide will run into some heavy snow at times through Saturday into Sunday. Sunday a cold front will move through with some snow showers east of the Divide, and highs will chill back down into the 30s and 40s. Early next week the wind will die down some and the temperatures will come back down closer to average as well. A few snow showers are possible on Monday, but a more significant snow is looking increasingly like around the Tuesday-Wednesday time frame. Another storm is possible later Thursday night into Friday. The storm activity seems to be increasing and we get closer to Christmas.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
