BOZEMAN – Powerful winter storm is right on track beginning to impact SW Montana Monday afternoon and likely to linger through Wednesday.
The combination of moderate to heavy snow and very strong wind gusts will produce hazardous conditions across the entire southern half of Montana. Low visibility with blowing and drifting snow, bitter wind chills, icy roads will make traveling extremely difficult to almost impossible.
The National Weather Service continues a WINTER STORM WARNING for all of SW Montana Monday evening through Wednesday morning.
Snow will be heavy at times with lower valleys picking up anywhere from 2” to 10” or more. Mountains and passes could see between 10” to 20” of snow. Wind gusts to or over 45 mph are possible. This combination will produce considerable areas of blowing snow and low visibility.
The National Weather Service issued a BLIZZARD WARNING for far eastern Montana into North Dakota from early Tuesday morning through Thursday afternoon.
10” to 20” of snow is possible with wind gusts over 45 mph. This combination will produce dangerous travel conditions with whiteouts and considerable drifting of snow.
Latest snowfall forecast shows the brunt of the heavy snow will stretch out from central Idaho through southern Montana and Northern Wyoming and extend eastward into most of North Dakota over the next 48 to 72 hours.
Latest local snowfall forecast has around 2”-6” of total snow in Butte and Bozeman. This is a mid-range forecast, there is a good chance both cities could see more than 6”. Other notable snow totals will be in Dillon with possibly over 8”, Ennis 8”-12”, Anaconda 6”-8”, Boulder 8”-12”, Lima over a foot of snow is possible including the Monida Pass area. West Yellowstone could see around 6” of snow. Big Timber to Billings could see 8”-16” of snow.
Keep in mind that the above snowfall totals are impressive by themselves but also factor in wind gusts 30 to 50 mph and that combination will bring dangerous travel conditions to the entire region. Also, this will be a dangerous time for young livestock.
Lastly, I highly recommend that all of you postpone all travel plans until this storm exits the region on Thursday.
