As Hurricane Milton slams into Florida with 120mph wind, more wildfire smoke is building into Montana. It's quite the dichotomy. Hurricane Milton is producing devastating conditions to parts of Florida, especially around Tampa to Sarasota where it makes landfall. Flooding rain, feet of storm surge and tornadoes have hit much of Florida prior to landfall. The worst of the storm will move across central Florida through Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Meanwhile in Montana, wildfire smoke has come back into the state. Similar to last Friday when a concentrated area of smoke moved through ahead of a cold front, the smoke has increased and the air quality decreased. A weak cold front will slip through the state tonight into Thursday morning pushing at least some of the smoke out down to the south. Highs will be cooler down in the 60s for Thursday. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with an outside chance at a few light showers. Some light, spotty showers are possible through Thursday night into Friday morning. Friday will be partly to mostly cloudy with an isolated shower, highs again top out in the 60s. This weekend will be mostly sunny, dry, mild and windier across the plains. Saturday will be mostly sunny with highs in the 60s to around 70. Sunday will mainly clear with highs in the 60s and 70s. The unusually warm and dry pattern may continue through the middle of next week. Late next week, a pattern change is looking more likely with a chance at moisture and cooler temperatures that should slow those wildfires down.
Have a great day,
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
