Epic snowstorm coats Mineral County over Christmas holiday

It was not just your imagination if you think the snow over Christmas was an epic event. Meteorologist Bob Nestor with the National Weather Service office in Missoula reported that Missoula had 13 inches of snow on the ground over a 36 hour period.

“As of today, we have 13 inches on the ground, and that’s the most in the month of December dating all the back to 1996,” Nestor said. “In that eight day period, we had 17 inches or more on the ground, and by the 30th, there was 27 inches, so that was one epic storm I don’t think we’ll catch, but this one was pretty significant. It’s also only the second or third time since we’ve been taking records here that we’ve had two storms that dropped six inches of snow in the month of December.”

There was 14 inches of snow on the ground on Lookout Pass, Lost Trail Pass and on Marias Pass in Glacier National Park during that time period. On Christmas Eve, a severe weather warning went out about driving conditions on I-90 between Frenchtown and Alberton.

The Montana Highway Patrol and wreckers were trying to tow a spun-out semi in the area near the Nine Mile exit at mile marker 81.9. Drivers were encouraged to stay off the roads until 8 p.m. Poor driving conditions continued to impact the roads between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, with 64 traffic incidents reported in Mineral County according to the Department of Transportation.

The last week of December brought in some sunshine and temperatures began to moderate and warmed into the 20s and mid-30s. However, by New Year’s Day another arctic system began to move down from Canada. Dumping several more inches into the valley and plummeting temperatures into the below zero range.

According to The Weather Channel, colder-than-average temperatures are expected to continue to grip the Northwest into February and March. While above-average temperatures will persist in the South.

“The reason for these temperature patterns in La Nina, which is the periodic cooling of eastern Pacific equatorial water, which can exert some influence on the atmospheric pattern, particularly in the colder months. La Nina usually correlates with colder-than-average temperatures in the northern and western U.S. with warmer-than-average temperatures in the southern and eastern U.S.,” the report said.