A HIGH WIND WARNING has been issued for the East Glacier area, the Rocky Mountain Front and out across Cascade County into Judith Basin County through Thursday evening.
It's the middle of January in Montana and one of "those" arctic airmasses is headed to the state for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Most of the state will see areas of light snow, overnight temperatures well below zero, and wind chills as cold as -30 to -40. This is a dangerously cold airmass, but we should avoid setting record cold temperatures as the worst of this airmass will move to the east of Montana through the Dakotas and Great Lakes. Thursday will have increasing clouds and wind as the cold front approaches. Highs will be in the 40s across the plains, 30s in the valleys. The cold front will move through the state Thursday night and areas of snow are likely to develop and continue into Friday. Some light snow will continue for parts of the state into the weekend, accumulation will range from a coating up to a few inches in the lower elevations to as much as 6" in the mountains. Highs will be much colder as the arctic airmass spills throughout the state. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend will be very cold with highs ranging from the -0s to the 10s, and lows from near 0 to possibly as cold as -30. Wind chills will be near -30 to -40 at times. While the weekend will start off mostly cloudy with some light snow, high pressure will clear out the clouds late in the weekend with mostly sunny skies. Sunday night should see the coldest temperatures with some slow warming beginning on Monday under sunny skies. Temperatures will moderate back to near normal by midweek.
Get ready for the cold,
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
