MISSOULA — As of 4:00 am, a strong Pacific cold front is moving through Washington and set to make it's way into Montana early this morning.
The front will strengthen as it moves through the Pacific Northwest with the primary impact being strong, damaging winds with wind gusts up to 50 mph or higher. Timing for arrival will be about 5am in Idaho and Clearwater counties, moving east to western Montana by about 7am, and becoming widespread throughout the Northern Rockies by about 9 am.
Along with the winds, widespread rain will initially fall across the region. Liquid precipitation totals for Lincoln County will be about another 1/2"-to-1" in the valleys and 1"-to- 2 1/2" in the higher terrain of the Cabinets. This rain on top of existing saturated soils has elevated the risk for rockslides, mudslides, and rises on creeks and small streams.
As we move through the morning, cold air behind this system will quickly transition rain to snow. Snow bands or snow squalls will be possible Wednesday with bursts of heavy snow and gusty winds creating difficult travel and the potential for whiteout conditions.
The heaviest snow falls in the Glacier Region where a Winter Storm Warning remains in place through this evening. Here, valleys could see 1"-to-5" with 6"-to-12" in the mountains.
And we're not done yet. Looking at Thursday and Friday, systems from the Pacific Ocean will continue to move through western Montana bringing round of snow, rain/snow or rain to the valleys with steady snow falling in the mountains. A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for the Bitterroot and Sapphire Mountains for Thursday and Friday with total 48 hour snow totals of 12"-to-24" possible.
Active weather will then continue through the weekend with rounds of mountains snow along with valley rain/snow remaining in the forecast.
