Happy Monday! It was a pretty good Monday with warmer temperatures, light wind and good sunshine. Of course we need more moisture as most of the state is still looking at long term drought conditions. The good news is there will be more opportunities for rain and snow heading through the end of April and the beginning of May. Several more storms should produce healthy precipitation across the state into May. While this may not alleviate the drought, it's unlikely that Montana falls farther behind in precipitation. What we need is consistent precipitation over several months, not just weeks like it appears will be. The first system comes in on Tuesday afternoon with scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms. Showers will be light but there will be a couple of good downpours with the isolated thunderstorms between about 5pm and 7pm. Highs before the front will be up into the 60s again. Wednesday will be a cooler day with a few isolated showers across southern Montana. Highs will dip just below normal again, down into the 50s. Thursday another larger storm will move into western Montana later in the day. Rain showers and a few thunderstorms are likely through the evening into the night. Snow levels will initially be fairly high above 6000', but lower through the night to the valley floors and some plains by Friday morning. Friday will be a wet and white day for many areas across the state. Some locations like Helena and Great Falls could start out with wet snow in the morning before snow levels rise in the afternoon. Highs will be chilly in the 30s and 40s. Several inches of snow will accumulate in the mountains. This weekend will be mostly cloudy with some rain showers in the lower elevations and snow showers in the mountains. Nothing looks particularly heavy but there will be light showers around both Saturday and Sunday. On the first Monday of May, a new storm will move in with rain and mountain snow. Once again, snow levels could lower down to the valley floors and plains by Monday night into Tuesday. Widespread precipitation is likely again with this storm. If you're looking for a warmup, late next week temperatures should rise into the 70s to around 80.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
