WEATHER DISCUSSION: Very cold temperatures for the state tonight and through Monday morning. Expect mostly cloudy skies in W, SW, and Central Montana with mostly clear skies along the Hi-Line and Eastern portions of the state. Temperatures will be a bit warmer in portions with more cloud cover tonight, the low temperatures will still be below zero with colder wind chills across the area. Expect winds on the lighter side.
For Sunday, there will be chances of light snow mostly in the morning over Central and SW MT. Major impacts with snow accumulation, most areas seeing less than half of an inch. High temperatures will once again remain in the single digits, feeling colder with the wind chills.
Cold air continues to move southward from Canada. Surface high pressure will slowly build over the area over the next few days, resulting in very cold overnight low temperatures. Cold air advisories (light blue) and watches have been issued for most of the area tonight through Monday for now. For locations right along the front range of the Rockies, the coldest air will not be quite as bad, thus no cold air advisories are in effect for those areas right now.
Extreme cold advisories (dark blue) will be in effect Sunday evening into Monday morning for SW MT, along the Hi-Line, and NE MT.
As we move into Tuesday/Wednesday, small pockets of strong winds will develop just above the surface along the front range of the Rockies first, then out in the Havre and Lewistown areas by Wednesday. Afternoon temperatures will start to warm on Tuesday, as an upper-level ridge builds to our west and the surface high pressure moves off to the east, taking the cold air with it. Overall, seasonable temperatures are expected for the 2nd half of the work week.
