Mother Nature to North Central Montana: “Say ‘When’.”
Rain continues to fall across most of North Central Montana this morning, and the National Weather Service observers across the area are turning in some mighty impressive rainfall totals. The following list is for the 2-day period ending at 9:00am this morning:
2.80" Gibson Dam W of Augusta
2.50" Dupuyer Creek
2.36" Browning
2.19" Whitlash
1.85" Kevin
1.78" Bynum
1.75" Conrad
1.70" 13mi W of Cut Bank
1.60" Badger Pass
1.45" Gold Butte
1.30" Many Glacier
1.19" Lothair
1.18" Ft Benton
1.13" The Knees
1.10" St Mary
1.10" Certain Creek (West Butte)
1.00" E Glacier, Augusta
0.90" Shelby
0.89" Cut Bank Airport
0.77" Choteau
0.59" Fairfield
0.49" Dunkirk
There is the potential that today's showers and thunderstorms could produce another inch of rainfall, and North Central Montana still has a moderate risk for flash flooding into the late evening.
In terms of river flooding, the National Weather Service tells me the larger rivers seem to be handling most of this precipitation, with some rises. There is a small chance a larger river could go above flood stage for a short time, and they are monitoring the river guages closely.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected daily across portions of North Central Montana through the weekend, and for at least the next week.