Rainfall Records Set; Small Stream Flooding in South County

By Samar

Two records for rainfall were broken in Glasgow this week, and small streams are flooding out of their banks in southwest Valley County and eastern Phillips County.

According to the National Weather Service office in Glasgow, Monday's .86 inches of precipitation nudged aside a record of .81 inches set in 1953. But Tuesday's 1.12 inches drowned the old 1916 record of .55 inches. 

Many areas in the county had more than 2 inches in their rain gauges. May is now showing 3.62 inches of rain, 2.32 inches above the average.

The rain was carried in on some high winds, gusting to 53 mph on Tuesday. The day's average wind was 26.5 mph. Some brief power outages were reported in the Glasgow area.

In Opheim, high winds and snow brought down a local landmark, the Paus Mercantile building on Main Street.

Flood warnings have been issued for Beaver, Antelope, Brazil and Willow creeks. The Milk River could be near flood stage in Glasgow and Nashua.

For Thursday through Saturday, the NWS is seeing the potential for severe thunderstorms and more heavy rainfall in all of northeastern Montana, plus counties south and southeast of Fort Peck Lake.