BOZEMAN – Northern Gallatin county residents received a “Snow Squall Warning” push alert from the National Weather Service Friday morning.
We have been getting comments from our viewers on why the alert was issued, and that this was not a “true” emergency.
The National Weather Service started issuing “Snow Squall Warnings” during the winter season of 2019-2020 nationwide.
There have been numerous multi-vehicle pile ups around the country with serious injuries and deaths associated with short burst of heavy snow and strong surface winds producing white-outs.
For that reason, NWS started to issue “Snow Squall Warnings” to save lives.
Snow squall warnings typically cover very small areas, short duration (15 to 60 minutes). During these intense winter storm events dangerous travel impacts occur.
The Bozeman area has a history of multi-vehicle pile ups on I-90 between Bozeman and Belgrade over the last 5 years in the winter months associated with snow storms.
Was this a true emergency? Ask first responders that are out attending to accidents what they think. I’ll bet all of them would say YES! A low visibility weather event is always a dangerous travel time especially during the winter months.
