A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY has been issued for much of Montana for Friday into Saturday for snow, blowing snow and extremely cold temperatures.
The first weekend of March will be a record breaker. Not only will there be numerous record lows, but record cold high temperatures are likely too. Arctic high pressure will drop temperatures to around 50 degrees below average. While the average high should be around 40, with lows in the 10s, highs this weekend will be below 0 with lows as cold as -40. It all starts on Friday as an arctic front moves south through the state. Snow will fly, but wind will increase. Wind chills will become dangerously cold. The wind will also blow the snow around reducing visibility. Temperatures will fall below 0 by Friday evening. Some snow will continue into Saturday, but at this point the temperature and wind chill will become the dominant weather features. Highs on Saturday will likely be below 0, with wind chills as cold as -30 to -40. Arctic high pressure will settle over the state Saturday night with clearing skies and calm wind. This will allow temperatures to plummet to between -20 and -40 by Sunday morning. Sunday will be sunny but very cold, with highs only in the -0s to 0s. Sunday night will also be extremely cold, with lows once again between -20 and -40. Temperatures will modify some next week as the arctic air loosens its grip on Big Sky. Not to say there isn’t more snow or very cold temperatures in the forecast, but the weather pattern will return closer to normal for early March.
Stay safe and warm.
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
