Happy May! What a beautiful weekend with warm temperatures and abundant sunshine. Temperatures have been the warmest since October, reaching the 70s and low 80s. While the weekend and start of the workweek was dry, there are thunderstorms that will become more and more numerous by the end of the week. As the thunderstorms and cloud cover increase, temperatures will slowly cool down back close to average. While the above average numbers are widely welcomed, mountain snow runoff has increased. At the moment, there are no rivers or creeks at flood stage but the water is cold and moving fast. Minor flooding is possible along the creeks and streams. Tuesday will be another warm day with temperatures in the 70s to around 80. There will be a few more clouds over western and southern Montana, and a few isolated thunderstorms are possible from Bozeman to Butte to Helena to Missoula in the afternoon. A large high pressure over south-central Canada that has provided warm and dry conditions will start to inch east, allowing for showers and thunderstorms to sneak into western Montana. Wednesday this high will move a little farther east with a few more thunderstorms across western and central Montana. Highs will be in the 70s to around 80. Skies will be clear for far eastern Montana, closer to the high pressure. Thursday the high pressure moves even farther east with more storms developing. By afternoon, scattered thunderstorms will move across central and western Montana. Highs again will be warm in the 70s to around 80. Low pressure will move into Montana on Friday with more widespread showers and thunderstorms, along with cooler temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Mostly cloudy skies will continue on Saturday with widespread showers and even a return of mountain snow. Highs will be down in the 50s. Sunday will be drier to start but another round of showers will move in late in the day and should continue into next Monday. Cooler temperatures this weekend will slow some of the mountain snow melting.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
