Drought watch turns to flood watch

Just a week after lack of moisture had officials warning drought could be creeping back to parts of the state, several days of heavy rain, with more in the forecast, led National Weather Service to issue flood watches and flood warnings.

The watches and warnings will last through Thursday evening from the Rocky Mountain Front east to Liberty and Cascade counties.

Hill and Chouteau counties, as of this morning, were not listed in a flood watch or flood warning status.

Eastern Glacier and Pondera counties are listed under a flood warning through early Thursday afternoon, and included in the flood watch through 6 p.m. that evening.

The flood warning says the St. Mary River near Babb is in minor flood stage, with the chance that its level will rise but that it should drop below flood stage by the end of the week.

This coming a week after dry conditions had radically changed the status of the state as far as moisture. The map released by the Governor's Drought and Water Supply Committee last Thursday showed large areas of the state dropping from "moist" listings in May to "near average," and Beaverhead and Madison counties dropping from "near average" to slightly dry.

That again changed in the past week.

Havre's Weather Service reporting station at the airport had recorded a shortfall in the normal amount of rain for May and June of 1.16 inches by last Wednesday. This morning, that station recorded .61 inches of rain in the previous 24 hours and 1.52 inches in the previous week.

That put the region as receiving more than the average amount for both the calendar year and the water year, which is measured from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, by .39 inches and .99 inches, respectively.

The amount of rain different areas received has been highly variable, with the heaviest in the recent storms near or over the Rockies.

In data available this morning for the previous 24 hours - data from some locations did not list precipitation, including Chinook and Harlem - Zortman received a half-inch of precipitation, while Little Bullwhacker Creek a short distance southeast of there received .7 inches and Fort Belknap Agency received .62 inches.

A reporting station on the north slope of Baldy Mountain in the Bear Paw Mountains recorded .5 inches while the Virgelle Ferry landing station recorded .35 inches.

Hingham reported .6 inches and Chester reported .37 inches.

But stations farther west recorded deluges in the previous 24 hours, with Cut Bank receiving .92 inches, Browning 2.16 inches and Heart Butte receiving 2.23 inches.

In the Rockies in the northern part of Montana, a station on Lower Saint Mary Lake recorded receiving 2.91 inches of precipitation in the previous 24 hours, while a station west of Babb at Goat Haunt Mountain, near the Canadian border, received 4.48 inches.

Weather Service forecast predicts the storm bringing the moisture will taper off by late tonight, with .75 inches to an inch more rain expected on the Rocky Mountain Front and a quarter-inch to half-inch more rain predicted in Liberty County and a tenth of an inch to a quarter-inch expected in Blaine, northern Chouteau and Hill counties through tonight.

Showers and thundershowers are possible through Friday in those counties, with sunny skies and warmer temperatures predicted Saturday.