Record High Temperatures Possible This Week in Missoula

The National Weather Service said that this week may bring record-high temperatures to Missoula and western Montana.

Meteorologist Trent Smith said temperatures could exceed the century mark and possibly set new records this week.

“We are looking at temperatures increasing over the next several days and probably for the remainder of the week as a ridge of high pressure begins to build in,” said Smith. “The way we are looking at temperatures being well back into the upper 90s and maybe even hitting that century mark here in Missoula, come the Friday time frame.”

Just how hot could it get in Missoula this week?

“It’s going to get very, very hot,” he said. “We'll be even approaching near record levels. The high on Friday should be 100, and the record is 101 set back in 2007. So it will be very abnormally warm for this time of year. The thing is, thankfully, it looks like our temperatures at night will be cooling off relatively nicely back down into the 50s to low 60s.”

Complicating the issue, Smith said there is a chance of thunderstorms, which makes fire officials very nervous.

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“We are looking at maybe an isolated shower maybe even a thunderstorm today and tomorrow,” he said. “I think the better chance for convection is actually going to be on Thursday as we're starting to get some monsoonal moisture. Moisture from the southwest is going to make its way up into our area, allowing us to get some thunderstorm activity.”

Smith said the heat and thunderstorms could possibly be mitigated by some much-needed moisture this week, as well.

“The caveat is that the storms will start off probably dry and produce a little bit of lightning or wind with the lightning,” he said. “They will appear to transition pretty quickly to wet, so we'll actually get some precipitation at least under the course of those storms. It's kind of a mixed bag with the lightning, but we are anticipating some precipitation with those thunderstorms.”

Sunday’s rain was a blessing for firefighters that had been fighting the fires near the Wye on Saturday that Frenchtown Fire officials have determined were caused by a malfunctioning train that passed through the Wye area earlier on Saturday.