Weather

Weak storm system could bring some snow tonight to SW Montana

Posted: Nov 12, 2012 3:21 PM by Meteorologist Mike Heard
Updated: Nov 12, 2012 3:31 PM

A weak disturbance is pushing moisture into Eastern Washington State and the Idaho panhandle late this afternoon and snow is falling over Look Out Pass on I-90 see attached graphic.

This weak disturbance will continue to advance to the east overnight and into Tuesday, producing scattered snow flurries at times in SW Montana. West of the Divide has a higher probability of minor accumulations overnight into Tuesday. Mountain passes west of the divide could see an inch or two of snow but most lower valleys should see only a dusting of light snow. This is not a major snow storm, instead it will be a nuisance type snow event wetting roadways and creating slippery conditions over the mountain passes at times.

The flow aloft is now out of the west and this will help temperatures moderate slowly over the next 5 to 7 days, it will be slow at first but by the end of the week and this upcoming weekend temperatures will climb to near normal levels.

A few more weak Pacific disturbances could bring a little snow our way Wednesday but overall the extended forecast looks mostly dry and cool this weekend.

The Cat-Griz football forecast for Saturday in Missoula is calling for dry weather but mostly cloudy. Morning lows in the mid 30s and afternoon high temperatures in the upper 40s.

Next week a large low pressure trough is expected to develop in the Gulf of Alaska and drop southward off the Pacific NW coast. This should strengthen a surface flow out of the SW keeping temperatures near normal, however, we could be looking at scattered rain and snow across the pacific NW and into the Northern Rockies Tuesday into Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'll continue to monitor the computer forecast models for a possible wet weather pattern prior to Thanksgiving day.

The latest STORMTracker Weather forecast is coming up tonight at 5:30pm and 10pm.

STORMTracker Travel Watch link