MISSOULA — What a beautiful day across Western Montana!
I even had to dig out my sunglasses that were at the bottom of my purse!
We all got to soak up some sunshine today, but we track a fast-changing forecast tonight.
A cold front is moving in from the west. This front will bring a round of cooler overnight temperatures, snow, and breezy conditions back for our Valentine’s Day morning.
A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for the Bitteroot and Sapphire Mountains and parts of I-90 and HWY 200 just to the west of Missoula until 6 PM Friday.
Waking up and heading out on Friday morning, expect most roadways (valleys and mountains) to be snow-covered and/or icy.
Temperatures stay cold enough tonight for snow to even make it to valley floors.
Wind will pick up behind this passing cold front, so falling snow will be blown around creating areas of reduced visibility (especially in upper elevations) through Friday afternoon.
We track rounds of winter weather remaining in the forecast through the weekend, too.
Highs will still top out in the upper 30s and low 40s throughout the end of the week and the weekend, so we will see a lot more of that snow to rain transformation in valleys. This will also make for some slushy conditions through the end of the weekend.
We are also tracking a SECOND cold front pushing through on Sunday. This will create another breezy afternoon, so continued falling snow and breezy conditions will also reduce visibility during the end of our weekend.
This unsettled weather pattern lasts through the beginning of next week, but we do have some sunshine returning to our forecast by midweek next week.
