Weather is a Real Thing

The town of Fort Belknap, Montana, sits atop the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation on U. S. Highway 2 in northcentral Montana.  Locally, we call the portion of Montana though which Highway 2 runs the Hi-Line.  The area—extending east and west just below the Canadian border—represents the westernmost fringes of The Great Plains.  Soon the plains will falter at the feet of the Rocky Mountains. 

Weather is a real thing there.  

Last Tuesday, Fort Belknap had what you might call a “weather event.”  Early that morning, a low temperature of 37 below was recorded.  A bit later in the day, a warming Chinook wind swept across the plains and along the Rocky Mountain Front to the west.  The temperature at Fort Belknap rose to a high of 45 degrees above Tuesday afternoon.  A temperature swing of over 80 degrees in one day.

-- Mitchell Hegman