Forecast for Labor Day Weekend looks good

People planning their Labor Day Weekend activities are getting some cooperation from Mother Nature, with forecasts calling for warm temperatures and mostly sunny skies through the weekend in this area.

This morning’s National Weather Service forecast for the weekend did not predict any rain until Monday night, which calls for a chance of showers and thunderstorms.

The forecast for Havre Friday calls for a high near 76 with a low around 49, and high temperatures are expected to rise through the weekend but not to extreme levels.

The high for Saturday in Havre is expected to hit 86, with a low that night of 54, then a high near 87 Sunday and a low of about 55. Both days are predicted to be sunny.

Labor Day has a predicted high near 80 and mostly sunny skies, then a low Monday night around 50 along with the chance of showers and thunderstorms.

Weather Service is predicted a 20 percent chance of showers after midnight Thursday, following some rain the beginning of this week.

The area still is very dry for the month and year, however.

The recording station at the Havre City-County Airport reported .07 inches of rain by midnight Sunday, with .03 inches by midnight Monday.

That puts Havre at the airport recording station at .49 inches from August, with a normal level at this time of the month .97 inches.

For the year, Havre has recorded 7.68 inches, down nearly an inch for the normal level of 8.53 inches.

For the water year, measured from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, Havre has received 8.65 inches with a normal level of 9.94 inches.

The very northwestern corner of Montana, including Lincoln County and part of Flathead County, has been classified on the National Integrated Drought Information System map as in moderate drought, with a band running from Sanders County through southern Flathead and Glacier, Toole, Liberty and Hill counties and into northern Chouteau and western Blaine counties classified as abnormally dry.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Outlook Center predicts Montana will have a 33 percent chance in the northeast corner of the state to have warmer-than-normal temperatures through December with a 40 percent chance of warmer-than-normal temperatures for the rest of the state.

The eastern half of the state is expected to have a 33 percent to 40 percent chance of above-normal levels of precipitation through December with the western half likely to have about normal levels of precipitation.