A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY is in effect for most of western Montana until 11am Thursday.
We are going to have mostly cloudy skies tonight with some scattered snow, freezing rain, and rain showers around, especially in the mountains and around Helena. It is also going to be “warmer” tonight than it was last night as lows are going to be in the teens and 20s.
For tomorrow, we are going to have mostly cloudy skies with scattered snow, freezing rain, and rain showers around, generally during the afternoon and evening. There are then going to continue to be scattered snow, freezing rain, and rain showers around tomorrow night, especially along the Rocky Mountain Front and along the Hi-Line, as a disturbance continues to pass through our area. A lot of this precipitation will fall prior to midnight, but more precipitation will begin to develop around and west of I-15 as we get closer to sunrise. Also, light snow accumulations of up to an inch or two and light ice accumulations of a couple hundredths of an inch are possible from tonight through early Friday morning.
We are also going to have a wide range of temperatures tomorrow as highs are going to range from the mid 20s to the mid 40s, with the warmest temperatures in central Montana. It is also going to be a little breezy in some of the higher elevations in central Montana tomorrow.
A wintry mix of snow, freezing rain, and rain is then likely on Friday, with primarily snow expected along the Hi-Line, a mixture of freezing rain, snow, and rain expected south of the Hi-Line in north-central Montana, and more rain than freezing rain and snow expected around the Helena area. We will then get a little bit of a lull in the precipitation Friday night. On Saturday, snow is likely throughout the day along the Hi-Line. South of the Hi-Line, a wintry mix of rain, freezing rain, and snow is likely initially, but the precipitation will transition over to all snow later in the day as a cold front passes through our area. Heavier snow bands are also possible with the passage of the cold front.
Right now, it looks like the heaviest snow amounts through Sunday morning will be along portions of the Hi-Line, including in Havre and Cut Bank, where 4-10” of snow is expected. South of the Hi-Line, a coating to 5” of snow accumulation is expected through Sunday morning, with a lot of that snow accumulation coming during the second half of Saturday and Saturday night, although light snow accumulations of a coating to a couple inches are possible on Friday.
There is also going to be ice accumulation with this storm system, especially from Friday morning through midday Saturday. The highest ice amounts look to be in central Montana and southern portions of north-central Montana, including around Great Falls, Helena, and Lewistown, where over .1” of ice is possible.
These are just preliminary snow and ice totals, and there will be changes tomorrow to these totals, so please stay tuned to KRTV/KXLH for the latest updates. There is also A LOT of uncertainty with the ice and snow amounts with this storm system as how much precipitation falls as snow versus freezing rain versus rain will greatly impact the totals.
We are also going to continue to have a wide range of temperatures on Friday and Saturday as highs are going to range from the low 20s to the mid 40s, with falling temperatures expected on Saturday.
On Sunday, we are going to have mostly to partly cloudy skies with some lingering snow showers around, generally during the morning, as this storm system leaves our area. It is also going to be cold on Sunday as highs are going to be in the teens and in most locations, and lows Sunday night will be in the -0s and 0s in a lot of locations.
We are then going to have partly cloudy skies and mostly dry conditions on Monday and Tuesday as high pressure is going to be in control of our weather. There is also going to be a little breeze around on these two days as sustained wind speeds are going to be between 5 and 20 mph. We are also going to continue to have below average temperatures on these two days as highs are going to range from the low teens to the mid 30s, with the coldest temperatures along the Hi-Line.
