Though severe weather and tornadoes have been ripping through the southeast United States over the past 48 hours, our weather week has been fairly uneventful in Montana as of Wednesday.
Though uneventful, our week so far has provided excellent opportunities to get outside and experience nature's gifts that Montana holds. As we move through your Wednesday, this will be the nicest day we've seen in 2022.
The reason for that is the temperatures will reach the highest points of the year, paired with widespread sunshine and a slight breeze. The deck of mid-level clouds that stuck around overnight in northwest and central Montana kept temperatures decently low overnight, but these clouds will dissipate throughout the morning hours, allowing for quick atmospheric warming to occur.
Mixing will increase in the upper atmosphere throughout the day, allowing for even warmer air temperatures; ahead of a weak cold front on Thursday. That cold front will move through Montana tonight into Thursday morning. Breezy winds will remain steady throughout the overnight hours tonight. Though there are some showers predicted with this cold front, most of the weather data appears to indicate precipitation amounts are trending between minimal and low amounts.
Low lying areas like the valleys will see as little as a trace or a few hundredths of an inch of precipitation. After the cold front passes Thursday, the large ridge that is currently planted directly over the Pacific Northwest will begin to build larger again. High pressure will continue building into the weekend as well. Dry and warm conditions will befall the state over the weekend.
On Sunday, there may be enough atmospheric mixing to allow many areas to see 70º temperatures once again. Next week the weather pattern is still very shifty; but the trend seems to be looking more like an unsettled atmosphere, which would allow for shower development and drop temperatures down to more average highs for this time of year in the 50s.
