By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
An extremely dry and abnormally warm May has left the Glendive area in a precipitation deficit for the year to date and has National Weather Service forecasters concerned that areas of Eastern Montana, especially northeast, may be headed for the dreaded ‘D-word’ — drought.
“It’s been the driest since 2009,” meteorologist Patrick Gilchrist of the weather service’s Glasgow reporting station said of May 2017, adding that to date, Glendive is experiencing its 32nd driest start to a year on record.
A scant 0.75 inches of precipitation fell on the Glendive area in May, turning what is normally one of the wettest months of the year into one of the driest in recent memory. The average precipitation for May is 2.23 inches, so Glendive’s rain deficit for the month was rather extreme.
With that big of a deficit in precipitation for May — combined with a slight deficit in April — Glendive is now nearly an inch-and-a-half below where it should be for precipitation by this point in the year. On average, by June 1, Glendive has received 4.73 inches of precipitation. As of June 1 this year, the total stands at 3.33 inches.
May was also hotter than usual, with the average mean temperature a full 4 degrees above normal. The average mean temperature for the month is 70 degrees, but May 2017 in Glendive clocked in with an average of 74 degrees.
June is also off to a hot start, and not necessarily in a good way. The mercury hit 95 degrees in Glendive last week on Thursday, setting a new record high temperature for June 1 in Glendive. The previous record was 94 degrees and had stood since 1934.
And if you’re looking for rain on the horizon to beat down the dust and the heat, so are weather service forecasters.
“We’re not seeing a lot of relief on the horizon,” Gilchrist said, noting that June is usually Glendive’s wettest month of the year but the weather service isn’t seeing any evidence of any major storm systems forming over the area in the next couple of weeks.
That fact, and the fact that Glendive and much of the areas north of Glendive are in a precipitation deficit is beginning to worry forecasters.
“We’re starting to become concerned,” Gilchrist said. “The nationwide drought monitor is starting to push into northeastern Montana as well.”
As for what’s happening to cause the abnormally dry weather, Gilchrist said there are no overriding weather patterns to point to as the culprit. Plenty of storm systems have moved across the region in the last couple of months, but the northeast corner of Montana has simply been the victim of dumb, bad luck, he said.
“Honestly, it’s just the way the storm systems have been pushing in. The storm tracks have been pushing to the south of us mostly,” Gilchrist said. “Down towards Broadus and Ekalaka, they’ve had really good precipitation totals this year, but here in northeast Montana, we’re in the hole.”
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.