Weather will switch from warm to wet, cooler

Enjoy the predicted high of 79 Friday, change is coming.

“We are going to trend cooler with periods of moisture coming through,” Paul Nutter, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Great Falls, said Thursday.

Up to a 10th of an inch of rain is possible beginning late Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning, Nutter said.

The forecast calls for a high of 74 Saturday, but clouds will move in later in the day.

A high of 63 is forecast Sunday, but the rainfall is expected to clear out.

Temperatures in the mid-50s are forecast early next week, but no freezing temperatures.

It’s an abrupt switch.

In Great Falls, a hard frost occurred Sept. 13, followed by a return of several days of summer-like temperatures.

Sunday through Thursday saw temperatures in the 70s and 80s, although Wednesday was right on the mark in terms of average, with the high 67 and the low, 36 degrees.

Through Wednesday, the average temperature for the month was 55.3, which is 1.2 degrees below normal. The average monthly temperature should be pretty close to the average by the close of September, Nutter said.

And the 2.2 inches of rain through Wednesday was 0.88 inches above average, with rain recorded on 11 of the first 28 days of the month.

Follow Karl Puckett on Twitter @GFTrib_KPuckett