downed powerline
© Ryan Hall/Tribune PhotoA NorthWestern Energy crew works on putting up a downed powerline Tuesday evening on 29th Street and 3rd Avenue North following a storm.
A brief but burly storm moved through Great Falls on Tuesday evening on a northeast trajectory that took it through northcentral Montana.

The storm knocked out power about 6 p.m. Tuesday, affecting around 2,000 customers in the downtown Great Falls area, according to NorthWestern Energy spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan.

The brief outage occurred when wind blew two power lines together. Sullivan said NorthWestern crews responded to several scattered outages Tuesday night all over Great Falls. One was caused by a broken pole, one by a broken power line, and others by trees or branches falling on lines.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, firefighters with Great Falls Fire/Rescue said they still were responding to calls related to outages or down power lines.

Sullivan said NorthWestern workers also were sent to repair outages in Portage, Carter and Fort Benton.

"Our crews are pretty busy," she said.

Winds of up to 50 mph were to blame for most of the damage, said meteorologist Nick Langlieb of the National Weather Service in Great Falls.

The storm was followed in most areas by scattered rain showers, but the precipitation was fairly light, he said.

Rain on mountain snowpack in warm temperatures can be a recipe for quick runoff and high rivers, but Tuesday's rain was light and far enough away from the mountains that meteorologists weren't concerned about rapid flooding.

"Mostly, it's been just the wind with these storms," Langlieb said.

Some hail was reported in the region, but the weather service didn't hear any reports of any hail larger than pebble-sized.

Langlieb said he expected that the storm would be out of the area before Tuesday night was over.

The weather service is predicting a similar storm to move in sometime this afternoon. Temperatures will be high again, and a cold front expected to move in could rapidly change the atmospheric temperature and lead to enough disturbance to cause lightning and thunder.

Langlieb said that storm probably will move through the region fairly quickly, but warned that people in a storm's path should avoid lightning danger by staying indoors.

"If you can hear thunder, you're close enough to get struck by lightning," he said.