textproduct: Great Falls

KEY MESSAGES

- Strong winds in the Browning and Cut Bank areas overnight tonight. - Cold air erodes over the next few days. - Warm and generally benign weather expected through most of this week. - Mountain snowfall possible late this week.

UPDATE

/Issued 847 PM MST Sun Dec 28 2025/

Updated forecast is out. Main change was to add a high wind warning to the Browning and Cut Bank areas for overnight tonight. Strong winds have developed in this area because of tight pressure gradient. Mid level winds of 45 knots are mixing down as well. Overall the strongest winds are likely to occur between now and Midnight, with winds decreasing a bit towards morning. Also, blowing snow is occurring in this area. Otherwise, temperatures adjusted towards current trends overnight. Increasing cloud cover will prevent temperatures from getting to as cold as it did last night in most areas. Brusda

DISCUSSION

/Issued 847 PM MST Sun Dec 28 2025/

After arctic air mass slid into the area yesterday, warmer air has begun to work back into the area from the southwest. While some of the valleys of Southwestern Montana have been a bit slow to warm up thanks to strong inversions that set up overnight. While these valleys and areas north of the Milk River on the Plains will not get quite as warm as other parts of the area will today, increasing mid level flow near and above the higher terrain of the area will help force the remainder of the cold air out of both the valleys of Southwestern Montana and areas near and north of the Milk River Valley on Monday.

Once this cold air is eradicated from the area, the remainder of the week will be generally unremarkable from a weather standpoint, save for above average temperatures and some breezy winds along the Rocky Mountain Front Monday and Tuesday. Otherwise, upper level ridging will more or less dominate the weather pattern through the end of the week, keeping us warm and dry through at least Friday.

Looking towards the weekend, there are some hints of an upper level trough trying to sneak into the area, which could bring some increased snow at least to the mountains along the Divide. Models do seem to be more on board with some troughing developing over the Northwestern US, which would bring cooler temperatures and possibly some moisture back into the area. Ludwig

AVIATION

29/06Z TAF Period

Strong and gusty west winds will persist along the Rocky Mountain Front through much of the 2906/3006 TAF period, with these strong winds pushing as far east as the KCTB terminal at times. Otherwise passing low CIGS, with bases of between 5-6kft, will gradually lift over the KEKS, KBZN, and KHLN terminals through 19-22z Monday. - Moldan

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

GTF 20 40 26 46 / 0 0 0 0 CTB 16 34 23 43 / 0 0 0 0 HLN 11 33 22 41 / 0 0 0 0 BZN 7 29 18 40 / 0 0 0 0 WYS -6 21 4 32 / 0 0 0 0 DLN 6 31 20 40 / 0 0 0 0 HVR -2 25 17 36 / 0 0 0 0 LWT 9 40 25 48 / 0 0 0 0

TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

High Wind Warning until 5 AM MST Monday for Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera-Northern High Plains.