A WINTER STORM WARNING continues for extreme southeast Montana.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY continues for parts of eastern Montana.
It has long felt cold and snowy so far this year but Mother Nature will finally flip the switch as warmer weather is heading towards Montana. The pattern is about to flip but not before one more chilly day with scattered snow showers. Wednesday will start out mostly sunny but have increasing clouds and scattered snow showers across most of western and central Montana. There will be a significant amount of instability in the air leading to widespread convective snow showers. Some of these snow showers could briefly be heavy through the afternoon into the evening. An accumulation of a coating in the lower elevations and 1-2" in the mountains is possible. Highs will be in the 30s and 40s. West wind will gust higher than 20mph. Thursday will start to get warmer for most of the state. Skies will be mostly cloudy for western Montana and just along and east of the Continental Divide. Central and eastern Montana will be mostly sunny. Highs will generally reach the 40s and 50s, with 30s in far northeast Montana and in the mountains. Good Friday will be mostly cloudy with highs in the 40s and 50s. A strong southwest wind will blow across the plains. Saturday the warming trend continues with highs in the 50s to low 60s. There will be more cloud cover across western Montana than the eastern side. Easter Sunday looks magnificent. Skies will feature a lot of sunshine and temperatures will warm through the 50s to low 60s. Wind will be strong across the plains and on the Divide, but Easter Egg hunts will not have to be in the snow this year. It might just be a little muddy or soggy in the yard from melting snow. Minor flooding is a possibility through the weekend into early next week. While the warmth is welcomed, too much of a good thing could be bad, meaning if it got warm and stayed really warm for a while that could lead to more significant flooding. It does look like this warm-up will cool off some on Tuesday with a cold front moving through. Temperatures will drop back down into the 40s and 50s with a chance of snow showers around midweek. This cool-down will slow down the melt, which is good news.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
