MISSOULA — A prolonged atmospheric river (AR) event is expected to bring periods of heavy rain & wind for the region Monday night through Thursday.

An AR is a narrow, intense plume of subtropical moisture — nothing new to the western United States, but this AR has an incredible amount of moisture, which will be transported into the Pacific Northwest, bringing more ‘bad than good’.

First, for us in Western Montana, the wind — southwest to west winds will be strong late Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning. There is a minor concern for localized tree damage and power outages.

With our currently saturated ground across many of our valleys, downed trees are possible. The strongest winds will be in Northwest Montana, and we do have some wind advisories in place there:

Kootenai/Cabinet &

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