A HIGH WIND WARNING has been issued for parts of western Montana including Helena and Great Falls.
A WINTER STORM WARNING has been issued for far northeast Montana.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY has been issued for the Hi-Line.
It has been a wildly stormy week as communities are beginning to recover from devastating wildfires that consumed homes and property over the last few days. Record warmth, record wind and an ongoing drought created a perfect storm allowing wildfires on the first day of December. There will be no rest for the weary on the first weekend of December as a strong storm will produce snow and wind for much of Montana. Snow will increase across northern Montana and especially the Hi-Line through Saturday morning. An area of low pressure will move across Montana producing some snow, especially up on the Hi-Line. Several inches could fall in some of the lower elevations, with the mountains seeing a good accumulation of several more inches. Some milder air and strong wind will work up through southwest Montana. As the storm drags in colder air, snow will move through the state on Saturday night. Sunday will have some light snow in the morning hours with partial clearing through the afternoon. Temperatures will be much, much colder. Another snow producing storm will move through on Monday. Monday will likely be a snowy day for most of the state with several inches accumulating across the lower elevations. The mountains could see up to a foot. More storms are likely later in the week into the second weekend of December. This pattern change with colder temperatures and more moisture could not come soon enough after Wednesday's wildfires. It might be a good time to put snow tires on. I did...
Have a great weekend.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
