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This Week's Wet Weather Could End 2017 Fire Season in Montana, NWS Says

The current forecast is on track to keep temperatures well below normal, snow in the mountains, and rain for low elevation valleys through at least late September. It will be a good time to dust off those warm clothes and rain boots.
National Weather Service Missoula
The current forecast is on track to keep temperatures well below normal, snow in the mountains, and rain for low elevation valleys through at least late September. It will be a good time to dust off those warm clothes and rain boots.

The National Weather Service says the rain and snow western Montana is getting should continue through next week, and will potentially end this year’s fire season. The agency issued a winter storm warning for most of western Montana from 9 p.m. Thursday until 6 a.m. Saturday, anticipating a dramatic change to very cold, wet weather.

Meteorologist Jenn Kitsmiller expects that will clear out smoke from the region and slow down fire activity.

"The good news is for the next week at least it’s going to stay pretty cool and moist, periods of rain and high mountain snow continuing. That should help to slow things down and put an end to the fire season as we’ve seen it this year," Kitsmiller says.

She says areas in southwest Montana along the Continental Divide could receive between one and three inches of rain over the next few days. So far, most of the rain has fallen in the Bitterroot Valley, but she expects the wet weather to keep moving west. Northwest Montana, near Libby and Eureka, could miss out on the rain at the end of this week but she expects that area will get some rain this weekend and next week.

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Matt Blois is a reporter and evening news host.