The National Weather Service in Missoula issued a Fire Weather Alert for Friday in the following counties: Palouse/Hells Canyon-Clearwater/Nez pierce-Kootenai-West Lolo-Salish and Kootenai Reservation – East Lolo-Bitteroot-Dearlodge/West Beaverhead-East.

The fire weather watch is in effect from Friday morning through Friday evening. Gusty winds and low humidity are forecast across the listed areas. Winds are forecast to sweep southwest at 10 to 20 miles per hour gusting to 30 miles per hour during the morning and shifting to west winds at 15 to 25 miles per hour gusting to 40 miles per hour following a cold front.

Erratic wind gusts might occur along the cold front and near thunderstorms. Minimum humidities will hover between 14 and 20 percent.

Thunderstorms are expected to hit North Central Idaho bringing isolated thunderstorms along a cold front Friday mid-day through late afternoon. They should move to west central/northwest Montana with scattered thunderstorms along with the cold front Friday mid-day through evening.

Southwest Montana is expected to experience isolated thunderstorms along with a cold front Friday late afternoon through evening.