What a beautiful rain! It wasn't a ton, it's not going to put out fires, but it sure was nice. Anywhere from a tenth to nearly a half inch of rain fell with this little area of low pressure. The rain was good, but there were lightning strikes as well. Hopefully there was enough rain where the lightning strikes hit the ground, but things have been extremely dry so new wildfire starts are possible. The storm system did not clean out all of the smoke, but the air quality did improve slightly. More wildfires, smoke and intense heat are likely over the next few weeks. In fact, the hottest weather of the year is possible early next week. Wednesday will be hot, sunny and dry with highs up in the 80s and low 90s. Thursday will be hot with isolated thunderstorms. Highs will rise into the low 90s. Friday will again be hot and dry with highs in the 90s and a few isolated thunderstorms. This weekend will be really hot as highs reach the 90s for most of the state, but eastern Montana could eclipse 100. A few isolated thunderstorms are likely on Saturday. Early next week, temperatures will get even hotter. Monday and Tuesday will be extremely hot with record heat likely. There is even a chance that a few towns set their all time record high temperature on Tuesday. Because of this heat and so much more of summer left on the calendar, this fire season will be brutal. Please be careful to not spark any new flames, and if you see smoke, call it in.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
