We have a new power outage reported this morning around 10:30 a.m., August 13. The outage appears to have impacted by one witnesses estimate "about half of the Bitterroot Valley.
Tree limbs littered streets and damaged power lines as high speed winds rushed through Missoula causing all kinds of havoc around 6:30 yesterday evening.
A massive line of thunderstorms ripped through eastern Idaho and west-central Montana Friday night, producing lightning strikes and sustained high winds that snapped trees and knocked out power to thousands in the area for several hours.
On Sunday afternoon, the heavy load of electricity usage in the Miller Creek and Southside areas of Missoula led to what is called a 'brownout' at the Miller Creek Road substation.
Monday night's thunderstorms blew through Western Montana bringing hail to the Lolo and Florence area, strong winds to Kalispell and Evergreen and causing problems for firefighters battling a blaze near Phillipsburg.