Advisory Archive
The temperature swings are giving me whiplash. At 5 a.m. most mountain locations were near or above freezing under mostly cloudy skies with west to southwest winds blowing 20-35 mph. Today temperatures will remain warm, clouds will increase, winds will remain the same and 1-2 inches of snow will fall in our southern mountains late tonight. An arctic cold front moves in tomorrow chilling us back into the single digits.
Early yesterday morning the snow stopped falling. Ridgetop winds blew westerly at 25-35 mph during the day and last night, lower elevation, mid-mountain winds increased from the south to 35 mph. Mountain temperatures have warmed into the upper 20s under partly cloudy skies. Today will remain partly cloudy and windy. No new snow is expected in the next 24 hours and temperatures will rise to above freezing in many areas.
The mountains got fire hosed with snow. Estimates are 14+inches in the northern mountains, close to a foot from Big Sky to West Yellowstone and 1 ½ to 2 feet in Cooke City. Winds blew westerly at 20-40 mph, but they are increasing at the ridgetops this morning with speeds of 40-60 mph up Hyalite. The snowfall will taper off this morning as high pressure pushes in. Thanksgiving Day will be sunny with mountain temperatures in the thirties under calm skies.
Last night another 2-3 inches of snow fell in the mountains. Since Friday evening over a foot has fallen in the Bridger Range, outside Cooke City and West Yellowstone, with 6-8 inches falling up Hyalite and around Big Sky. Winds were blustery over the weekend hitting speeds of 70 mph from the west on Saturday. This morning westerly winds are blowing 25-35 mph and gusting to 50 mph with temperatures in the teens under partly cloudy skies. Another system crawls in tonight to deliver snow tomorrow and Wednesday. It’s a northwest flow and new snow will blanket the mountains. My fingers are crossed that it will be a bountiful Thanksgiving.
Temperatures in the mountains warmed today into the upper 20s F to lower 30s F. The most recent snow fell last weekend with 3-5 inches near Bozeman and Big Sky and 7-12 inches near West Yellowstone and Cooke City. No more snow has fallen this week. A Pacific weather system will bring precipitation starting Friday night followed by colder temperatures Saturday night. Next week looks promising for more snow as well.
The cold snap ended and 25F never felt so warm. Who needs a hat? Five days of frigid temperatures (minus teens in the mountains) with a few snow storms cured me of wondering when winter would arrive. It’s here, like it or not. The first half of this week looks to be sunny with mountain temperatures in the teens to upper 20s and a sweltering mid-thirties in the valleys. Ridgetop winds are out of the northwest and will blow 20-30 mph for the next few days. Later in the week clouds will return with a chance of light snowfall.
Over the past 24 hours accumulating snowfall and plummeting temperatures have impacted the entire forecast area. In most mountain locations temperatures are in the single digits and have dropped roughly thirty degrees F since yesterday afternoon. Snowfall amounts between 6-8 inches have been recorded in the Bridger Range, Carrot Basin (southern Madison Range) and mountains around Cooke City. The rest of the advisory area picked up around 1-3 inches. Fortunately, winds are relatively light, blowing 5-10 mph out of the WNW. Today, light snow will continue with an additional 1-2 inches possible and temperatures will warm into the double digits. Snow will taper off this evening and temperatures will again drop to the single digits above or below zero.
While snow has been falling periodically since late August, little of it survived the beautiful, warm fall we’ve had so far. More snow fell in the mountains this weekend. Near Cooke City and West Yellowstone 10 inches of snow fell while the mountains near Bozeman and Big Sky got only a few inches.
