BOZEMAN – Good grief another round of record lows for SW Montana Tuesday morning. Mostly clear skies Monday night allowed temperatures to bottom out between -15 to -35 below zero in SW Montana. This region was again the cold spot in the state of Montana and setting record lows for the third day in a row. Watch the above on demand STORMTracker video forecast for a look at all the record and near record lows in our region.
The weather pattern is in transition Tuesday evening and this will make forecasting lows difficult as clouds increase overnight temperatures should be a little warmer and hopefully above zero for most of SW Montana. However, if skies are clear to partly cloudy temperatures after midnight could drop below zero and slowly moderate by early Wednesday morning.
The next weather maker will lift moisture up from the SW and that should help temperature rise into the 30s for a few days but the tradeoff is increasing snow and wintry travel impacts Wednesday through Friday. Light snow accumulations are likely for most valleys and mountain passes Wednesday into Thursday with a better chance for accumulating snow Thursday night into Friday morning. By the end of the week most (not all) valleys could see 1″ – 4″ of snow and mountain passes 2″ – 5″ or more.
Tuesday
City by City Forecast:
BOZEMAN: LOW: 6°; HIGH WEDNESDAY: 21°. Increasing clouds tonight and not as cold. Forecast lows are slightly above zero but look for updated forecast lows tonight at 5:30 pm and 10 pm on KBZK as this could change and is very dependant upon how much cloud cover there is tonight. Wednesday will be cloudy with scattered light snow. East winds to 15 mph.
BUTTE: LOW: -7°; HIGH WEDNESDAY: 26°. Increasing clouds tonight with light snow possible by morning. If the clouds don’t arrive until after midnight Butte could fall between -5 to -15 below zero but as clouds build early morning temperatures should be slightly below zero. Wednesday look for scattered light snow with around 1″-2″ by Wednesday evening and not as cold.
DILLON: LOW: 6°; HIGH WEDNESDAY: 29°. Clouds will be building over Dillon tonight and hopefully keeping overnight lows above zero. Look for a little light snow Wednesday with minor accumulations for nearby mountains and passes. Afternoon temperatures will be rising as well.
WEST YELLOWSTONE: LOW: 11°; HIGH WEDNESDAY: 34°. West Yellowstone begins to transition away from bitterly cold to a slightly milder weather pattern with increasing snow showers. Accumulations of 2″ – 4″ is possible through Thursday morning. Another shot of snow is coming Thursday night into Friday with another 2″ – 5″ possible.
