BOZEMAN – We are stuck with a windy pattern through the weekend. A series of mostly dry cold fronts will produce up and down temperatures over the next 5 days and late afternoon to early evening gusty surface winds.
This first front is producing surface wind gusts between 20 to 40 mph for most reporting stations in SW Montana as of 1 pm Wednesday. The strongest surface wind gusts will be in favored high wind prone areas along the Continental Divide, Three Forks to Ennis, Townsend to Toston, and around Dillon.
Temperatures will be slightly cooler Thursday but the upper-level Low passing through Southern Canada will also cause surface winds to increase again Thursday afternoon.
The next weather maker begins to slowly push in from the West on Friday and yes more wind is in the forecast with stronger gusts by Saturday. This system will produce a much cooler pattern late weekend into early next week and hopefully bring some valley rain and higher mountain snow.
A Red Flag Warning is up for SW Montana east of the divide through 9 pm Wednesday. The combination of warm, dry, and windy conditions is creating higher fire danger. Please use extreme caution with all outdoor activities on Wednesday. As mentioned above, more wind is likely Thursday through Saturday and higher fire danger will occur over SW Montana.
