Missoula Rural Fire Department Battalion Chief Dan Merritt says the warmer weather has kept his department busy the past few weeks as people lose control of their controlled burns.
At least three people have been killed and hundreds of thousands were without power over the last 24 hours due to sometimes hurricane-force winds roaring into the northwest through to Montana.
The National Weather Service has posted that there is a sever thunderstorm watch in effect for the Billings area for the rest of today and tonight until 9 p.m.
Memorial Day weekend normally is cloudy and stormy in Billings. But this past weekend ended pretty nice in the Magic City. The weather pattern is changing this short work week though.