After a very quiet, dry and mild November and December, harsh and brutal winter weather is set to hit Montana through the week into Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Weekend. This weekend will be a light reintroduction to more typical winter weather. Saturday will have increasing clouds with some snow showers developing in the mountains later in the day. Areas of light snow will move through the state Saturday night into Sunday. Sunday will be colder with light snow tapering off. A coating up to an inch is possible in the lower elevations. It's not a huge storm but it's more snow and colder temperatures than we've seen in a while. Highs on Sunday will be in the 10s and 20s with lows in the 0s and -0s. Monday will be a partly to mostly cloudy, dry day with highs in the 30s and 40s. A stronger wind will develop across the plains. Tuesday will have a front move through the state with some light snow out across the plains and some heavy snow showers/squalls closer to the mountains. A strong wind will accompany that front. Another round of snow is likely around Wednesday, Thursday and thru Friday. Along with several inches of snow will be the coldest air we've seen in over a year. By Friday and MLK Weekend, highs could be below 0 with some of the normally colder spots seeing lows near -40 without the wind! This is seriously cold and dangerous weather that will be moving into Montana and also throughout a lot of the West.
Have a great weekend!
Curtis Grevenitz
Chief Meteorologist
