A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH continues for most of the state through Thursday evening.
A FLOOD WATCH continues for north-central and eastern Montana into Friday morning.
This has been a prolonged stretch of severe thunderstorms here in Montana. Most of May and June there was little to no severe thunderstorm activity. Typically those are the months of greatest severe threat, but mother nature has been making up for lost time in July. Strong and severe thunderstorms will continue to move through the state Thursday evening and night. Some storms have already produced large hail and torrential rain. The threat of these storms will work east through the evening into the night. While the activity is not as intense and widespread as Wednesday, storms could still pack a mean punch. After Wednesday's thunderstorms produced extremely heavy rain, the ground in saturated in many areas. Additional rain could lead to flooding tonight. The good news is Friday is almost here, but the bad news is there will be more thunderstorms. These boomers will fire up through the afternoon and evening, working eastward through the later half of the day. A large low pressure out in the Pacific responsible for some of this thunderstorm outbreak will shift east on Saturday. There still will be some thunderstorms but the worst of it will shift east across central and eastern Montana. If you plan on being outside on Saturday, still plan on some ugly thunderstorms. Sunday the threat of thunderstorms will drop as the feed of moisture dries up. A few isolated thunderstorms are possible, but it will not be as bad as what we are currently experiencing. Early next week will be dry with temperatures warming up. Some areas will climb into the 90s by Tuesday and Wednesday. Some isolated thunderstorm activity, more typical of July, will move through late next week. Some areas could come close to touching 100 degrees as well.
Stay safe.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
