Montana’s Drought Still Extensive Despite Recent Rain Montana fire officials are grateful for this weekend’s cool, and in some cases, wet weather, but they say much more of it is needed to mitigate the state’s deepening drought crisis. John Monzie, Deputy Chief of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation’s Fire Protection Bureau, says the rain only helped part of the state. “But unfortunately, this recent rain was mostly on the west side. We did get some scattered [showers] across the state, but eastern Montana — especially the northeastern corner — was in extreme drought prior to this little bit of precip and I doubt that’s going to be turned around very much.”