A HIGH WIND WATCH has been issued for Sunday.
A FIRE WEATHER WATCH has been issued for north-central, northeast, and parts of southwest Montana for Sunday.
While the temperatures will be warm with a lot of sunshine, the wind will make it uncomfortable to be outside at times. Temperatures will rise through the weekend. Saturday will have highs in the 50s to around 60. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy at times, but expect clearing later in the day. Once again, wind will be as high as 30mph.
Sunday's temperatures will shoot up into the 60s to near 70 for many locations. Skies will be mostly sunny. The wind could gust higher than 75mph along the Rocky Mountain Front. North-central Montana could have gusts approach 60mph. The wind will certainly blow dust around, some power outages are possible. It will be difficult to pull a trailer. The combination of the wind, low humidity, and dried/dead fine fuels will increase the fire danger. It's not a good weekend to burn slash piles.
Sunday is the "warm before the storm" as a strong front will cut across the state from late Sunday night through Monday. This front will have squalls and briefly heavy rain and snow, quickly turning to snow. An isolated rumble of thunder is not out of the question. Very strong wind will accompany the front as well. Morning temperatures in the 30s will tumble into the 20s later in the day. Areas of snow will move through the state. While the mountains will see several inches, there could be a couple inches into the lower elevations.
Monday night's temperatures could drop into the 0s and 10s. Tuesday will be a chilly, blustery day with a mix of sunshine and snow showers. Temperatures will warm back up above average by Wednesday with well above average temperatures for Thursday and Friday.
Have a great weekend.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
