While much of the U.S. will swelter in heat and humidity this weekend, it will feel more like fall, or even winter, for much of Montana and Wyoming. 

An unseasonably cold low pressure system is expected to bring below-average temperatures to the northern Rockies through early next week. Temperatures will be up to 35 degrees below average in some locations this weekend. Glacier National Park may not even reach 50 degrees for a high on Saturday.

In fact, low temperatures will drop below freezing in the higher elevations, leading to the chance for the first snow of the season to fall. In West Glacier, Montana, the average date for the first temperature below 32 degrees is Sept. 13, so the cold conditions are about three weeks ahead of schedule.

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Private owners of land voluntarily worked with federal agencies through a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances to improve conditions for the Arctic grayling. The CCAA has helped start over 250 conservation projects to protect the grayling in the past eight years. They have done things like improving irrigation techniques that affect waters where the fish live to improve the grayling's habitat. The grayling's population has at least doubled since 2006 because of the CCAA's efforts.

"This is a prime example of what a CCAA can do, not only for wildlife, but also for sustaining the way of life in rural ranching community," said Service Director Dan Ashe in a USDA press release. "The conservation progress for Arctic grayling would not have been possible without the amazing support we have received from willing landowners and other partners in the Big Hole River and Centennial valleys."

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Yellowstone National Park is giving visitors to the park this fall a heads up on some significant road construction work that will result in long detours.

The National Park Service says the road work involves two sections of Yellowstone's Grand Loop Road that will be closed due to construction after the Labor Day holiday weekend.

The road linking Old Faithful with West Thumb and Grant Village will be closed for the season starting on Sept. 2.

In addition, the road from Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris will be closed starting Sept. 14.

The road construction will cause detours that will add up to two hours or more along parts of the route.

Bill Muhlenfeld is owner and publisher of Distinctly Montana magazine and other publications. He lives in Bozeman with his partner, Anthea, and always finds time to enjoy the great outdoors, when he is not writing about it....

What's in a name? 

Well, if the name is Montana, quite a bit.  While googling "Montana" does bring up the Treasure State first in its search, more casual searches often overturn other cyber-rocks uncovering Joe Montana, Hannah Montana (sans twerking) and French Montana (who is he, anyway?).  This is especially true if the search involves news, videos or images, where Google seems a bit mnemonically challenged.

It seems that Montana could really never be called something else, though names were floated before statehood--"Shoshone," "Lincoln"--and there was a even move in the 1930's to lop off a piece of the state along with parts of Wyoming and South Dakota, to create a new state-"Absaroka."

For me, as likely for you, this annoyance is tolerable. Let's face it, Joe, Hannah and French are temporary obfuscations. The word "Montana" mostly conjures searches that relate to the Distinctly Montana masthead--Adventure.  Inspiration. Spirit.

That's enough for me.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks reports that several grizzly bears have been seen along rivers and streams east of the Rocky Mountain Front, and they asks residents to keep bear attractants contained.

"The bears are in the river bottoms following the chokecherry crop," Mike Madel, a bear-management specialist with FWP, said in a press release. "There have not been any reports of bear-human conflicts."

But bears could be drawn to populated areas by unsecured garbage cans, the smell of pet food, bird feeders, and even dirty barbecue grills.

"When bears encounter human-supplied food sources, they often have a hard time returning to natural food," Madel said. "Then, a conditioned bear will travel miles to get to a garbage can."

In June, three young grizzly bears attacked and killed two calves at the Schuler ranch along the Teton River north of Carter, about 30 miles north of Great Falls.

One of the bears was captured and relocated west of the Continental Divide. The other two bears were last seen moving west on the Teton River.

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Yellowstone National Park and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory posted a brief article online Friday titled "A Short Statement Regarding Recent Rumors" to help dispel rumors that have begun circulating -- again -- about a possible eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano, reports of mass evacuations, and other such issues.

The YVO staff wrote:

We have received enough concerned emails and phone calls that we've spent some time tracking down a few of the statements made on various "alternative Internet news sources."

1) First, everyone should know that geological activity, including earthquakes and ground uplift/subsidence is well within historical norms and seismicity is actually a bit low at present.

2) Concern over road closures is much overblown. There's been one road closure of a small side road - just over three miles long - that was closed for two days. As one can imagine, it is not easy to maintain roads that pass over thermal areas where ground temperatures can approach those of boiling water. Roads at Yellowstone often need repair because of damage by thermal features as well as extreme cold winter conditions.

3) The park has not been evacuated. This one is pretty easy to verify by everyone. If the Old Faithful webcam shows people, or if news articles are coming out about a hobbyist's remote control helicopter crashing into a hot spring, Yellowstone is certainly open for business.

4) No volcanologists have stated that Yellowstone is likely to erupt this week, this month or this year. In one recent article, a name was attributed to a "senior volcanologist", but that person does not appear to exist, and a geologist with that name assures us that he did not supply any quotes regarding Yellowstone.

5) Finally, we note that those who've kept track of Yellowstone over the past decade or so, have seen a constant stream of "predictions" regarding imminent eruptions at Yellowstone. Many have had specific dates in mind, none had a scientific basis, and none have come true.

We will continue to provide updates on geological activity at Yellowstone, and educational materials to help understand the science around Yellowstone monitoring.

Montana News>>>KBZK