Winter Storm Warning Continues Throughout Western Montana

After a brief warm-up Saturday, it's back to snow and cold in Western Montana, with some of the heaviest snow we've seen this winter forecast into Tuesday.

I had a conversation with National Weather Service Meteorologist Jen Kitzmiller on Sunday afternoon after snowblowing my driveway for the umpteenth time over the weekend.

She said a large band of snow is stuck over the Missoula and western Montana area and will continue to make driving hazardous into midweek.

Winter Storm Continues Through Presidents Day into Tuesday

“We've got a widespread winter storm warning, and it looks like a prolonged event,” began Kitzmiller. “We're going to keep snow going here in the Missoula vicinity all the way into Tuesday morning. Not much for breaks; so it just looks like the snow is really going to pile up. Some other things we're a little concerned with tonight, the roads have warmed up, and there are a lot of wet roads out there. But as temperatures drop tonight, it's likely going to get pretty icy as well.”

After a fairly dry winter so far, Kitzmiller said Mother Nature is making up for lost time in the snow department.

Kitzmiller said Up To a Foot of New Snow Has Fallen as of Sunday

“We've heard reports ranging between three to six inches around the Missoula area,” she said. “When this is all said and done, you know, there's a good chance that we'll get upwards of a foot of snow. The other piece of this is tomorrow (Monday) night, we have an arctic front just off to our east, and that's going to slowly move this way towards Missoula. So tomorrow (Monday) night, it's going to cool temperatures a bit more and maybe bring in some wind on top of it. So travel, especially east of here, maybe pretty treacherous, especially by tomorrow (Monday) night.

One added factor Kitzmiller mentioned will be the wind picking up in the next few days.

“If we get more wind into the Missoula Valley, that's definitely going to make some challenges with blowing and drifting snow, which could be kind of that extra piece that makes things really difficult,” she said. “There are still some differences on how much wind we'll see here, so we're going to kind of have to see how that all plays out. But it could definitely be challenging Monday night into Tuesday.”

Thankfully She said Presidents Day Will Reduce Traffic on Monday

Thankfully, Kitzmiller said Monday is Presidents Day, a federal holiday, and that schools and government offices will be closed to commemorate the holiday.

“I will say, I believe tomorrow (Monday) is a holiday. So as far as I know, most schools are not open tomorrow. So they'll be, I think probably seeing how things play out tomorrow before making decisions on Tuesday.”

The National Weather Service said that there is a continued Winter Storm Warning that is expected to last until Tuesday morning.