MISSOULA — A cold front currently working its way through western Montana will bring a wide variety of weather impacts Tuesday.
While mountains see all snow, valleys will start with rain. As the cold front moves through, temperatures will quickly drop allowing rain to change over to snow. Accumulations will remain light, however, icy roads from quickly dropping temperatures along with .5"-to-2" of snow will be possible in valley locations. Areas that could see higher snow fall amounts will be for the higher elevation valleys closer towards the divide (Seeley Lake, Swan Lake, West Glacier, Philipsburg). These areas could see around 2"-to-5" of snow with this system.
The winds will also pick up as the cold front moves through. Widespread wind gusts of 25-35 mph will be likely across western Montana with isolated gusts of 40-45 mph possible.
After this system moves out, high pressure will build for the rest of the week. Highs will be in the upper 20s to low 30s Wednesday then range in the low to upper 30s Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Our next weather system will then arrive this weekend. Once again, nothing major is expected with just scattered snow showers possible with highs in the low to middle 30s.
