BOZEMAN – The coldest temperatures of the winter season arrived Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Numerous record lows this morning as temperatures bottomed out in the –20 to –41 below zero range.
Some of the coldest temperatures reported were north of Butte in Elk Park with a low of –41 degrees below zero, West Yellowstone –36 degrees below zero, and Georgetown Lake –32 degrees below zero.
Usually with Arctic outbreaks like this one we tend to see temperatures much warmer at higher elevations like mountain passes, however, that did not occur this time. In fact, most MDT mountain pass temperature trends were in the –20 to –30 degrees below zero range. This tells us that the Arctic air is incredibly thick with widespread impacts.
Wednesday night into Thursday morning will once again fall below zero over SW Montana. The good news is that we don’t expect it to be as cold as Wednesday morning. Most of the region should fall into the single digits below zero to around –20 degrees below zero for West Yellowstone.
A rapid warming trend begins this weekend and forecast highs will jump into the 40s and possibly a few lower 50s by next week.
