The National Weather Service office in Great Falls issued a Flood Watch Monday morning covering a swath of north-central Montana, warning that excessive rainfall could produce flooding through noon MDT. The watch went into effect at 5:10 a.m. and covered several regions that have already absorbed days of rain from a slow-moving storm system.
Areas included in the watch stretched from the East Glacier Park Region and Eastern Glacier County south through Western Toole, Central and Eastern Pondera, Eastern Teton, and into the Northern and Southern High Plains, as well as the Southern Rocky Mountain Front. The geography spans some of Montana's most flood-prone terrain, where river drainages off the Front can rise quickly when saturated ground can't absorb additional rain.
The watch did not include Lewis and Clark County, but residents north of Helena with family or property in the watch zone should monitor conditions closely. The NWS Great Falls office was the issuing authority, and conditions were expected to improve after midday as the system moved east.