Weather
Montana trades its warm, breezy pattern for a colder, wintrier regime as a Pacific trough and a Canadian cold front meet over the state this weekend. Showers and a few rumbles of thunder pop Saturday, then colder air pours in Saturday night and organizes moisture against the terrain. The result is a widespread mountain snow event that peaks Sunday, with lingering orographic snow showers and early-week chill holding over the high country Monday. Confidence is highest along the northern Divide and Rocky Mountain Front, solid for the southwest and central ranges, and lower for broad valley impacts outside far northwest Montana.
Snow levels begin unhelpfully high on Saturday, then fall rapidly behind the front late Saturday night into Sunday. Expect roughly 9,000 to 12,000 feet during the day Saturday, stepping down to about 2,500 to 5,000 feet from northwest to southeast by daybreak Sunday. That opens a window for valley flakes in northwest Montana where easterly low-level flow squeezes moisture against the Divide. In and around Glacier National Park, upslope enhances snowfall while a quick flash-freeze risk rides the falling temperatures. Elsewhere, lower elevations trend wet and blustery until the colder air catches up, with accumulating snow favored from the foothills upward.
Totals favor the windward mountains with the northern Divide leading the way. Along the Continental Divide from Glacier through the Bob Marshall, a long, orographic-assisted hit can stack 12 inches or more on the upper peaks, with localized 18 to 24 inches where west flow aloft overlaps easterly surface winds. Valleys in far northwest Montana have a credible shot at 1 to 4 inches late Sunday night into Monday morning. Southwest and central Montana join the party with 4 to 12 inches near and above pass level in the Gallatin, Madison, Centennial, Little Belt, and Highwood ranges, while the Crazies can push toward 8 to 14 inches and the Absaroka/Beartooth toward 5 to 10 inches on favored slopes.
Timing runs clean from a showery Saturday into a colder, deeper Sunday, then a taper Monday. Saturday brings scattered showers and a few thunderstorms, then snow expands and lowers overnight as the Canadian front arrives. Sunday is the core snow day for the mountains and the best chance for a photogenic valley coating in the northwest. Monday taps the brakes to mountain snow showers with cold air lingering, then a cool and somewhat unsettled pattern hangs on into early next week. For turns, Sunday rides deepest, while Monday offers colder, cleaner snow on the upper mountain after the heaviest bands fade.
