GREAT FALLS — The spring storm that whipped across Montana this week brought heavy rain, snow, and powerful winds - and disrupted utility service to several communities.
NorthWestern Energy crews are working to repair broken power poles, downed power lines, and other damage from the storms and restore service to customers affected by outages.
The utility company said in a news release that some areas will have extended outages.
Service restoration is estimated to be Thursday, May 9, for the rural White Sulphur Springs area.
Power outages in the Monarch and Neihart area are expected to extend at least through the weekend.
Additional personnel and equipment are in these areas to assist with work to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
You can check NorthWestern Energy’s Outage Map for the most up-to-date information on outages.
Weather conditions are going to improve for the rest of the week.
For Thursday, there will be decreasing clouds with scattered rain and mountain snow/rain showers around, generally during the morning, as this storm system finally leaves our area. There is also going to be significantly less wind on Thursday as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 5 and 20 mph, with the strongest wind in eastern portions of north-central Montana. Highs on Thursday are going to range from the mid 40s to the mid 60s.
We are then going to have beautiful weather on Friday with mostly sunny skies, dry conditions, little to no wind, and even warmer temperatures as highs are going to be in the 60s and low to mid 70s in most locations.
Superb weather is then going to stick around for Mother’s Day weekend with plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures, and highs are going to be in the 70s and low 80s.
Here are precipitation totals for the last several days:
