BOZEMAN – A cool and unsettled pattern will return to SW Montana Tuesday night through Wednesday night with scattered showers, a few thunderstorms, and higher mountain snow.
A second weak Pacific system could bring a few showers and rumbles to the region again on Friday.
The Memorial Day Weekend forecast is mostly dry. Starting off chilly but by Monday most of us should see lower 70s.
The last cool and wet weather pattern that lasted 5 to 6 days produced moderate to heavy precipitation over Montana and should help the green-up process significantly over Montana. The best news is that higher mountain snow received a significant amount moisture boosting most percent of average values around the state. Some river basins are well above normal while others are still below to well below normal on moisture content in the higher mountain snowpack.
For example, the Gallatin basin is up to around 94% of average while the Madison basin is a dismal 67% of average. The Jefferson basin did get a little boost and is now up in the 77% of average range. The Upper Clark Fork basin (between Butte and Missoula) saw an incredible jump in moisture and is now considered slightly above average with around 110% of average.
There will be some additional valley rain and mountain snow Wednesday and again Friday with a pair of storms. We should end the month of May near normal for total precipitation in the Bozeman-Belgrade areas and unfortunately below normal for Butte, Dillon, and Livingston. We will have the final recap early next week.
