BUTTE – Interesting weather pattern impacting Montana with areas of snow and wind producing wintry travel concerns through midnight locally. There is an incredibly strong, deep area of Low pressure over Colorado this afternoon. This storm is wrapping moisture back up into Southern Montana and just barely clipping SW Montana.
WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY:
The National Weather Service has a Winter Weather Advisory up for SW Montana east of the divide through midnight Wednesday.
Snow accumulations: 1″ – 4″ for valleys and 5″ – 10″ for mountains.
Plan on difficult wintry travel through Thursday morning.
As this storm slowly migrates eastward it will be pulling away for SW Montana with a quiet weather pattern developing beginning Thursday. Temperatures will remain colder than normal through the end of the week, however, a warming trend will begin this weekend and continue into all of next week.
As temperatures rise to normal levels ( 40 – 50 degrees) next week look for valley snowpack melting and possible flooding impacts. Rural areas with dirt roads will turn muddy and may become impassible. The ground is frozen so water will flow overland and will pool up in low lying areas. Refreezing wet roads could turn icy again with colder overnight temperatures. So this weekend try and help water flow away from your home and plan on runoff issues next starting next week.
BOMB CYCLONE:
As mentioned above a deep area of Low pressure is building over Colorado with very warm and moist Gulf of Mexico air wrapping into the storm along with cold Canadian air being pulled into the backside of the Low. This is creating dangerous weather impacts with blizzards, heavy snow, flooding rain, and possible thunderstorms. Travel should be postponed in these regions until after the storm has passed.
SE Montana will be impacted by this incredible storm system. There are Blizzard Warnings, Winter Storm Warnings, and Winter Weather Advisories up for most of SC and SE counties of Montana.
Areas of heavy snow and very strong winds will produce dangerous travel impacts for I-90 heading into Wyoming.
City by City Forecast:
BOZEMAN: LOW: 4°; HIGH THURSDAY: 26°. Snow will continue in the Bozeman area through midnight. Snow accumulations of 1″ – 3″ is possible for Bozeman and for Bozeman Pass on I-90. Starting Thursday a drying trend will begin and more importantly a warming trend.
BUTTE: LOW: 3°; HIGH THURSDAY: 29°. Scattered snow will continue to impact Butte through the evening hours tonight. Nearby mountain passes (Homestake, Elk Park, MacDonald) will see accumulating snow and difficult wintry travel impacts. Skies should be clearing by Thursday morning.
DILLON: LOW: 6°; HIGH THURSDAY: 25°. Scattered snow showers will linger into this evening with light accumulations. Look for clearing skies by Thursday morning.
WEST YELLOWSTONE: LOW: 0°; HIGH THURSDAY: 26°. Scattered snow showers will persist for West Yellowstone and inside Yellowstone National Park into this evening. Snow accumulations should be on the light side but just enough snow and wind to produce difficult travel concerns through midnight.
