You likely heard plenty of thunder and rain early this morning (8/19) as you were laying in bed wishing you had a coffee. And when you did finally leave the house, hopefully you caught some of that beautiful pink sunrise over Mount Sentinel. As I was getting settled in at the station, our news guy reported that Missoula and Ravalli counties experienced 184 lightning strikes in the 3 hour period of 3 to 6 a.m. One hundred and eighty four!

I'm thinking that's not great for the outlook of fire season. Naturally, our local Forest Service is keeping a close eye on any starts of new fires due to this morning's lightning. Meanwhile, today is considered a Weather Alert Day as more isolated thunderstorms are expected this afternoon and evening. Expect lightning and gusty winds later today, with temperatures staying warm with the high today at about  88 degrees.

Missoula and the Bitterroot may get more scattered rain tomorrow morning, but the forecast for another perfect summer weekend looks dry with highs in the high 80s to low 90s. Still plenty of time to perfect that tan before we really dig in and pretend that we know which days and times to send our kids to school, or, pretend that we know common core math.

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