snow
© Karl PuckettA city snowplow in action near Marketplace in Great Falls Saturday.
The storm is exactly what they said it would be: snow accumulations of up to a foot, drifting snow making highway travel hazardous and subfreezing temperatures putting a strain on livestock producers.
In other words a typical spring storm in Montana.

"Last night was pretty much an every hour, hour-and-a-half check because they wouldn't have lasted through too long out there in that wind," said Dana Darlington, a Stanford area rancher describing the effort it took to keep his newborn calves alive.

"We got about five-, six-inches of snow and about a 40-mile-per-hour east wind all night long, so it was pretty tough," he said. " We had some calves in a new windbreak, and we thought that would be the answer, but it was swirling around so hard that they were pretty iced up this morning."


The Darlington ranch's calving due date fell on the same night as a strong winter storm blew in — pretty typical for any among us whose livelihood depends on keeping small, newborn critters from freezing.

"We had like eight yesterday and one during the night," Darlington said of Saturday morning's calf count. "Only one so far today."

Judith Basin County seemed to get the brunt of the storm. On the northern toe of the Little Belt Mountains one weather spotter reported 14-inches of snow by midnight on Friday. Galata, Bynum, Cut Bank — multiple central Montana communities called in with a foot or more of snow by early Saturday morning.

The National Weather Service's office on the hill west of Great Falls reported a two-day total of 5.5 inches but noted that blowing snow made coming up with an exact amount extremely difficult. Snow totals also varied around the city. Five miles west of Great Falls, 9.4 inches of snow was reported.

By Monday, temperatures should return to a high of around 28, said Matt Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls.

"We'll probably stay fairly cold on overnight lows through much of the week with all of the snow still on the ground, but during the daytime temperatures should get at least to the low- to mid-30s — practically balmy spring weather by then," Jackson said.

Harsh, late winter snowstorms are nothing surprising in Montana. According to Jackson, the real anomaly this year has been the lack of regularity in the weather — both in the past few weeks and the the last several months.

"This has been just a really weird last 12- to 18-months," he commented. "We had that really long snap in February to March last year when it was extremely cold. Then, last summer was fairly cool and not nearly as hot as it can be. And then we get into last fall, when we had massive amounts of snow from September to about Thanksgiving. We got nearly a whole season's worth of snow during that time period."

"Then you get to the winter months and nothing much has happened," Jackson added. "Just 10 days ago the high crested at 70 degrees at the Great Falls airport. Then we have this. It's been just a really weird last 12- to 18-months."

Snow totals

Five miles west southwest of Great Falls: 9.4

At the airport in Great Falls: 5.5 (The Weather Service noted that there were higher totals reported through the city and that measuring the snowfall on Gore Hill was difficult due to blowing snow).

Ulm: 6

Fort Benton: 8.1

11 miles east southeast of Lewistown: 10.5

Cut Bank: 11

Havre: 7

Choteau: 9

1 mile northwest of Choteau: 13

5 miles southwest of Stanford: 14

1 mile southwest of Helena: 12

Helena airport: 2.2