Temps near Havre not close to records for year

While the average temperature in 2015 may have hit record highs in some parts of Montana, in Havre it was only the 15th warmest on record.

“Havre wasn’t actually as warm as some areas across central north Montana,” said Roger Martin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls.

In the Havre area, average temperatures were slightly higher at 45.4 degrees, the 15th warmest on record.

North-central and southwestern Montana experienced their warmest summer since 2007 and their warmest March in 30 years.

Throughout the Treasure State, the average temperature for 2015 was 44.9 degrees, tied with the warmest since 1934, according to an Associated Press report.

Dillion had its warmest year since records were kept, reaching 46 degrees. Bozeman and Helena hit their second highest yearly averages at 45 and 48 degrees respectively.

Martin said the cause behind such high temperatures isn’t completely clear, though a factor is El Niño, when warm temperatures of the waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean make for warmer than normal winters in the Northwest through the Rocky Mountains and into Montana.

Signs of El Niño started to become evident in the late spring of 2015, Martin said, so it may have been a factor in the warmer-than-usual temperatures for some, but not all of 2015.

Though El Niño does bring warmer-than-usual temperatures to Montana, Martin said that does not mean there will not be really low temperatures and precipitation that year.

In the year ahead, the National Climate Center, which makes predictions about El Niño, said most of its models going forward into the year ahead indicate that El Niño conditions will continue through the winter of 2016, before those conditions begin to atrophy in the late spring and early summer, giving way to more typical temperatures.