BOZEMAN – Very warm today for Montana with above normal 70s and a few lower 80s Sunday afternoon. Above normal temperatures are likely next week as well before a cooling trend arrives by the 2nd weekend in October.
There is a RED FLAG WARNING up for a small part of SW Montana, most of central Montana and up along the Northern Rocky Mountain front.
The combination of warm, dry, and very windy conditions will produce extreme fire danger through sunset Sunday evening.
Strong High-pressure is producing the warm and dry pattern and it’s paving the way for wildfire smoke to blanket SW Montana from fires mostly in central and northern California. Air quality has been holding in the “moderate” range most of the day Sunday but the longer the smoke sits over the region the worse the rating will be through Monday.
A dry cold front will pass through the region Tuesday and that should help scrub out some of this low-level smoke.
Our next change for rain will not arrive until Saturday October 10th and rain chances are very low. I’ll update the extended forecast for you tonight after the NFL games hopefully around 5:30 pm and after the CBS evening Sunday night movie around 10 pm.
