'Tis the season! The first few lightning strikes and thus thunderstorms moved through western Montana on Tuesday afternoon. A fairly strong storm from the Pacific came rolling in. Now getting into the middle of March the atmosphere can be a little more unstable with increased warmth and stronger solar intensity. There may be a few isolated lightning strikes on Wednesday as the day will have a lot of atmospheric instability which will result in widespread snow showers through the late morning and the afternoon. Upper level cold air will interact with warmer surface temperatures and more intense solar radiation, resulting in the unstable atmosphere. It's possible this produces a few isolated thunderstorms. It will be the type of day that the sun could be out, followed by a quick hitting snow shower, followed by more sun. Some of the snow showers will be heavy, especially over the mountains and a few inches of snow could accumulate there. Strong west wind will persist across the state all day long. Thursday is St. Patrick's Day and will be quite a beautiful day. Highs will be in the 40s and 50s with a lot of sunshine. Another minor storm will move through on Friday with just a few isolated showers in the lower elevations, and snow showers in the mountains. Saturday is the final day of winter and it will be mostly sunny and very mild with highs in the 50s to around 60. Spring officially begins at 9:33am on Sunday. Ironically a new storm moving through the West will likely bring colder temperatures and a mix of rain and snow to Montana. Highs will be much cooler in the 30s to around 40, and the wet snow could accumulate late in the day, through the night into Monday morning.
Have a great day!
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
