Strong Wind Advisory Issued for Missoula –Thunder Possible

The National Weather Service has issued a strong wind advisory for the Missoula area starting at 5:00 p.m. on Monday and continuing through 10:00 p.m.

Meteorologist Ryan Leach provided details early Monday morning.

“We basically have a cold front that’s going to be coming through the area today and we’re looking at some pretty strong southwest winds kicking up,” said Leach. “We’ll get gusts in the mid to upper 30 mile per hour range out ahead of that cold front, and once that cold front comes through we’ll have stronger winds gusting from 40 to 50 miles per hour out of the west to northwest.”

Once the front arrives, Leach said the winds will diminish, but there is a chance of snow in the valleys.

“With that cold front we’ll have the snow levels drop and rain showers during the day will transition to snow showers overnight and so we expect to see a little snow down here in the valley.”

Leach said an interesting feature of this cold front is that it may be accompanied by a first for the new year of 2020.

“The biggest impact will be from winds but there’s also a chance we could hear some thunder coming out as that front comes through, and we haven’t heard thunder come through this area in a while.”