The National Weather Service is predicting a line of thunderstorms starting Tuesday, and increasing in intensity on Wednesday, followed by periods of heavy rain and cooler temperatures.

Meteorologist Dan Zumpf said on Monday afternoon that the potential exists for severe storms in western Montana.

"We've got some thunderstorms over the mountains tonight, but they'll become more numerous tomorrow and should get down into the valleys," Zumpf said. "These storms will be accompanied by strong gusty winds and some rain. But the really big storms should be arriving on Wednesday and Thursday when we could see some hail and severe wind gusts, and then that will be followed by some really heavy rain. So, we could be looking at storms turning into solid rain by the time we get to Friday."

Zumpf said the temperatures in western Montana will also be dramatically cooler as these storms pass through.

"It looks like this rain will be bringing cooler temperatures, and you might even need a jacket by the weekend," he said. "The high temperatures will only be in the low 70's, and that's pretty low for this part of August."

Monday's high was 98 degrees, just two degrees shy of the record of 100 set in 1996.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Zumpf

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