Today's Forecast: Temperatures will slowly warm back to the middle 70s for the afternoon. Look for partly cloudy skies and a light wind between 5-15 mph with occasional gusts to near 20 mph.
BOZEMAN: High: 75; Low: 52. Skies will be mixed with clouds and sunshine with a light northwest wind between 5-15 mph.
BUTTE: High: 71; Low: 50. Partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies during the early afternoon with a light west wind between 10-20 mph.
DILLON: High: 75; Low: 51. Temperatures will hold in the 70s under partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies.
WEST YELLOWSTONE: High: 69; Low: 42. Warmer with a few clouds pouring through our skies during the afternoon.
Drought Update:
The latest drought numbers are a little mixed, but mostly positive, especially in southwest Montana. The most notable changes come in two areas. Exceptional drought, which is the highest level went from 0% last week to 4% this week. That increase comes along norther Montana near the Rocky Mountain front range.
The second change comes in the severe drought range, which is a level 3 drought range. Those numbers went down 20% from the previous week. Last week those numbers were at 49% to 29%. Much of those changes came from rain over the last two weeks. To keep those numbers moving in the right direction, it obviously requires more rain during what our driest months in the Treasure State would normally be.
Right now, we are slated to be in another La Nina pattern this year which would mark the 3rd year in a row. On a typical year that would mean that Montana would see colder and wetter winters. That hasn’t happened on this latest extended cycle in the last two seasons. That is unusual, but not unheard of. We must hope that the law of averages catches up this upcoming winter, and that the La Nina pattern continues and actually does provide moisture and colder temperatures.
