NEWS

Storm dumps 5 inches on Great Falls

Karl Puckett
kpuckett@greatfallstribune.com

As much as 8 inches of snow fell across northcentral Montana on Tuesday and early Wednesday in the first significant snowstorm of the season, including 4.8 inches in Great Falls, the National Weather Service said Wednesday morning.

Now temperatures are dropping.

“It’s going to be cold Thanksgiving,” Roger Martin, a Weather Service meteorologist, said at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, when the temperature in Great Falls was 1 degree.

Highs in the teens and 20s are forecast for Thanksgiving Day, with lows around zero and potentially below zero, which is unseasonably cold.

“It could be one of the coldest mornings of the season,” Martin said.

Windchill values could range from negative 5 to 15 Thursday.

“Our bigger concern now is transitioning to the cold temperatures and still some lingering slick spots on the roads,” Martin said.

Upper 30s for highs and lows in the 20s are normal for this time of year.

Snowfall along the Hi-Line ranged from 1 to 3 inches.

Farther south, from Great Falls to Lewistown, 3 to 7 inches was reported. At the Weather Service office in Great Falls, 4.8 inches was recorded.

A heavier band of snow set up south of Helena east through Judith Basin County, where the Weather Service received snowfall amounts of 7 to 9 inches.

In southern Cascade County, 8 inches of snow was reported south of Ulm, and 8 to 9 inches were reported north of Clancy in Jefferson County.