High Winds This Weekend and Mountain Snow Next Week

The National Weather Service produced a You Tube video describing a wind event in western Montana, according to senior forecaster Bob Nester.

“This active pattern will be starting later today”, said Nester on Friday afternoon. “We have an approaching cold front that will be traveling through late Saturday through Sunday, however before that as the front approaches we’re expecting some pretty strong winds, especially up in northwest Montana including the Mission Valley up to the Canadian border. We could have gusts in the valley locations between 35 and 45 miles per hour during the day on Saturday.”

Nester said the Missoula valley will primarily be expecting rain through the weekend.

“By Saturday evening we can expect rain to develop in the Missoula valley and last through much of the night,” he said. “By Sunday morning the temperatures should be cold enough that we might get a few inches of snow. Evaro Hill might see a couple inches of snow, but that will be done by mid-morning on Sunday.”

Nester said Monday and Tuesday will be mild, but there will be another weather system entering the area late Tuesday and into Wednesday.

“Right now, we’re expecting snow mainly in the mountains, but it will stay pretty warm in the valleys with highs into the 40’s, however we’re expecting some pretty healthy snow up in the mountains.

“Right now we’re about 100 percent of normal with the snow pack,” he said. “All of our mountains are at between 97 percent to 102 percent of normal snow pack, with higher snow totals in northwest Montana such as Glacier National Park, which has snow pack at 117 percent.”

Nester said for those concerned that Missoula’s winter has been extraordinarily mild, he said that February can be a big month for snow, and that there are at least five more weeks of winter.