Montana Gets Chilly Welcome to the “Real Fall”

It wasn't record cold this morning, but it was a chilling reminder that fall was here, as many locations west of the Divide woke up with temperatures well into the 20s.

Unofficial temperatures saw Missoula drop to 27 degrees, Butte, Deer Lodge, and Lincoln at 19 degrees, and Kalispell at 25 degrees. Bozeman dropped to 25 degrees.

     More widespread frost, along with fog, is forecast through Wednesday morning.

Alpine routes closed by snow

The weekend snow in the high country eventually forced Glacier National Park to close Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass.

The park showed the road was still closed for "winter conditions" this morning, as was the road to Many Glacier. Other roads, like the North Fork, were open. There's been no indication whether Logan Pass will reopen, given the late season and the government shutdown.

The Beartooth Highway was also shut down. MDT and their counterparts in Wyoming will reassess conditions this week to see if the road will reopen again this season.

READ MORE: Montana's First Winter Weather Watch in Months

More people die in weekend crashes

For the second time this month, a fiery car crash has resulted in the death of another Montanan.

Highway Patrol says a Chevy pickup driven by an older Fishtail man, suspected to be under the influence, had stopped in the middle of Highway 10 near Park City late Saturday night. Another pickup, driven by a 15-year-old Columbus teen, tried to swerve to miss the truck, hitting it before swerving into the oncoming lane. That's where he collided head-on with an oncoming semi. The two pickups caught fire, killing the teen. The older man, and the driver of the Kenworth, weren't injured.

Montana Highway Patrol reports it was a 49-year-old Butte woman who died yesterday when her Honda pickup truck ran off the freeway near Butte Sunday afternoon.

Troopers say the woman wasn't wearing her seatbelt and was thrown from the truck after going over an embankment, hitting a delineator post, and overturning.

Everyone pitches in for an impromptu cattle roundup

Miles City proves it still knows how to handle cattle, after people had to pitch in to round up about 120 animals that scattered when a cattle truck tipped over in the I-94 roundabout Sunday afternoon.

Images posted by "Miles City Live" show the cattle trailer flipped on its side while trying to make the corner, with some of the animals making it into the middle of town. But as you might expect, local cowboys and cowgirls knew what to do, pitching in and having most of the surviving cattle rounded up in less than a couple of hours.

Knudsen goes after "green tech"

So how of much of the technology you use is really produced with "green energy"?

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen wants to know if there's any truth to the claims, and is leading a coalition of 16 attorneys general in other states with an investigation into some of the claims being made by "Big Tech."

In a letter sent late last month to Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, Knudsen and his colleagues want to know whether the companies are making false claims about energy use, and its impact on our electric grid here in Montana and in other states. His big concern is that those claims could be impacting our state's renewable energy sources like coal and natural gas.

      Knudsen says those claims could be a violation of Montana's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act.