The National Weather Service predicts fairly tame weather across Montana through Thursday evening, when we could see some dramatic changes.
Traveling for Thanksgiving? If so, don’t stress out about the weather, at least not until Friday.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Genki Kino says Missoula’s short-term forecast looks fairly typical for the entire state’s.
"For Thanksgiving Day we’re looking at highs in the upper 50s for Missoula. That’s getting right there with the record temperatures, so it’s going to be a warm Thanksgiving."
Kino says Missoula could meet – maybe even beat - the record temperature of 59-degrees set back in 1954. A wet, warm tropical air mass that’s moved across the Pacific is now pushing through the intermountain west.
It’s also ushered in some rain. West-central Montana’s showers are predicted to taper off this evening. The next round starting Wednesday night and continuing through Thursday will mostly affect northwest Montana. Some Mountain passes, including Lolo and Lost Trail could get a brief shot of high intensity snow and blowing snow on Thursday night.
The bigger weather story is the wind associated with an inbound cold front expected to arrive Thursday evening.
"We’re looking at wind gusts of anywhere from 45 to 60 miles per hour with that front. It’s hard to pinpoint which areas are going to get the strongest winds. Overall there’s potential all across western Montana to see scattered power outages from the strong winds," says Kino.
Enjoy these relatively warm temperatures while you can. Kino says we’ll soon return to a colder, more seasonal pattern Friday through Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon into Monday could bring scattered snow and slick roads, particularly over area mountain passes.
Kino says Montana’s high elevation snowpack is currently ahead of what it was this time last year.
