Forecasts Call For Higher Temps In Months Ahead

By Bill Vander Weele

State meteorologists provided information during the monthly weather-ready briefing conducted by Nick Vertz, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, last week.

Vertz reported that the Glasgow and Billings areas each had 15 severe thunderstorm warnings during June and six warnings in May. The amounts are comparable to recent years but lower when looking back a decade or two. For example, there were 56 warnings in the Glasgow area for June during 2021, 67 in 2016 and 107 in 2015.

Vertz noted there are usually quite a few storms during the months of July and August.

“There’s still a lot of storm season left for us,” he said.

Area residents were greatly concerned about a storm warning featuring hail for Thursday, June 27, but most of northeastern Montana received little impact.

Temperatures in northern Montana were below normal during June. Overall, precipitation was drier than most Junes.

As far as drought conditions, most of northeastern Montana is regarded as abnormally dry.

The outlook for July 8-14 calls for near normal temperatures and precipitation.

Above average temperatures and below average precipitation are forecasted for June through September.