A HIGH WIND WARNING has been issued for north-central Montana through Friday.
A FIRE WEATHER WATCH has been issued for northeast Montana through Friday afternoon.
Showers and thunderstorms are moving through the state with a cold front. This front will cross Montana by Friday morning. Behind this front will be a lot of wind. Most of the state will be very windy for Friday. Gusts could top 60mph for parts of the Hi-Line. Dangerous fire weather conditions will occur up in northeast Montana where wind and low humidity would carry a fire quickly if it were to start. Friday will not be a good day to conduct any burning. There will showers mainly in the mountains, but a few showers will come down into the lower elevations as well. High temperatures for Friday afternoon will be in the 60s to near 70. Mother's Day Weekend will be cooler with more showers and higher elevation snow. A new area of low pressure will spread rain showers and mainly higher elevation snow on Saturday but it's more unsettled than downright stormy. Most of the state will have partly cloudy skies, with sunshine and periods of more cloud cover. There will still be wind but it will not be quite as strong. Mother's Day on Sunday will be cooler with highs in the 40s and 50s. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy and scattered showers and mountain snow showers will increase through the afternoon and evening. Areas of rain and higher elevation snow will continue for Monday. Temperatures may be cold enough by early Monday for a mix of rain and snow in some of the lower elevations. Cooler than average temperatures and areas of showers with mountain snow will continue into the middle of next week. The storminess continues through next weekend and the following week. Drought status has slowly improved however a lot of the state still needs much more precipitation to completely alleviate the drought.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
