Weather

Snow ending and temperatures dropping

Posted: Nov 10, 2012 12:02 PM by Meteorologist Mike Heard

Winter Storm Warnings have expired and the worst weather conditions are now behind us as this storm system continues to push eastward into North Dakota this morning. There are still some lingering snow showers near the mountains here in SW Montana but the atmosphere will continue to dry out by this afternoon.

We are getting some impressive reports of total snow amounts south of Great Falls. Ulm is reporting 48" of snow over a 2 day period. Here in SW Montana this storm system produce heavy wet snow and the water content was around a half an inch or more which made for hard work shoveling that heavy wet snow. Bozeman November precipitation is up to .69" (10" of snow), Butte has .62"(10" of snow), Dillon .21"(3" of snow), Helena 1.39" (17" of snow).

Driving conditions have improved a little today versus yesterday around town but highway road conditions continue to be hazardous at times in wind prone areas with localized blowing and drifting and snowpacked and icy conditions over most mountain passes. Here is a link to the STORMTracker Travel Watch page.

Arctic air intrusion is now the main weather concern for the rest of the weekend. Forecast highs and lows will be well below normal and dipping below zero tonight. 11am temperatures in SW Montana were only in the single digits to very low teens and with light and variable winds, wind chills are dropping slightly below zero. Boulder Hill and Monida passes are reporting wind chills as low -13 below at 11am. Lows tonight here in SW Montana will drop between 0 and -10 below zero. Brrrr

Veterans Day weather will be dry and cold.

A quick warm up is expected to develop as the flow aloft turns to the west beginning Monday. Forecast highs and lows should rise up to normal levels, 40's for highs and 20's for lows, by Tuesday. This westerly flow will also push a few weak pacific disturbances through western Montana with brief periods of mainly mountain snow showers into the first half of next week.

The weather forecast for the Cat - Griz game in Missoula Saturday November 17th should be fair. The general forecast is mostly cloudy for Missoula with highs in the lower 40's and only a 20% chance for snow.