A HIGH WIND WARNING expires at 8pm.
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY has been issued for most of central and western Montana
through Friday into Saturday.
Thursday was the "warm before the storm" as highs reached the 40s and 50s, but arctic air and tumbling temperatures will result in a nearly 70 degree drop by Sunday night. The coldest air of the season so far will arrive for Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The cold air will come in stages as a series of fronts will bring progressively colder air into the state into the weekend. Most of the state will see areas of light snow, overnight temperatures well below 0, and wind chills as cold as -30 to -40. This is a dangerously cold airmass but we should avoid setting record cold temperatures as the worst of the cold will move to the east of Montana through the Dakotas and Great Lakes. The first cold front will move through the state Thursday night and spotty areas of snow are likely to develop and continue into Friday. Another cold front will work across the state on Friday with falling temperatures in the afternoon. But the arctic air will hold off until early Saturday morning when the arctic front crosses the state. Some light snow will continue for parts of the state into the weekend, accumulation will range from a coating up to a few inches in the lower elevations to as much as 6" in the mountains. Highs will be much colder this weekend as the arctic airmass filters in. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend will be very cold with highs ranging from the -0s to the 10s, and lows from near 0 to possibly as cold as -30. Wind chills will be near -30 to -40 at times. While the weekend will start off mostly cloudy with some light snow, high pressure will clear out the clouds late in the weekend with mostly sunny skies. Sunday night should see the coldest temperatures with some slow warming beginning on Monday under sunny skies. Temperatures will moderate back to near normal by midweek.
Changes are afoot,
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
