Bitter February and start of March turning to spring-like weather

March certainly came in like a lion at the start of March, but almost immediately turned to relatively lamb-like spring-ish weather, with more warm weather in the forecast.

The high is expected to hit the freezing point in Havre today, with a high of 34 predicted Tuesday, National Weather Service reports.

The first three days of March, though, were anything but springlike.

Following a brief reprieve with a warmer high in parts of this region at the end of the second-coldest February on record, March brought a cold front and more severe winter weather to the area.

The end of February was nothing like the first two days of the month, when highs were in the 40s. The last two days saw highs hitting 1 degree Feb. 27 and 14 above Feb. 28 in Chinook, with Havre hitting 12 degrees and 20 degrees Feb. 27 and 28, respectively. Havre's low stayed above zero at 6 degrees the last day of the month.

The lows stayed cold in Chinook, though, at minus 20 Feb. 27 and minus 21 Feb. 28.

The warmer end of February skipped Chester, which saw highs and lows minus 4 and minus 15 Feb. 27 and minus 3 and minus 40 Feb. 28. Chester also hit minus 40 Feb. 20.

Then the March storm hit. In Havre, the high hit 16 degrees March 1, with the low dropping down to minus 13. The high stayed below zero for March 2, hitting a top temperature of minus 10, with a record low of minus 32 that night.

The high stayed below zero at minus 8 March 3, with the low a frigid minus 31 - not a record for Havre, which was set at minus 34 in 1891.

Weather Service reports Chinook stayed warmer March 1, with a high and low of 16 and 1 above zero, then dropped March 2 and 3 with highs and lows of minus 9 and minus 31 the 2nd and minus 2 and minus 21 the 3rd.

Data for Chester and Big Sandy was not available this morning.

Snow also fell all three days in the region, bringing close to an inch of new snowfall to the Havre area.

A frigid February

But the cold, snowy start to March was nothing compared to the previous month.

February in north-central Montana did not come close to the cold the region saw in 1936 - when the average temperature for the month was minus 12.8 degrees. In Havre that year the high didn't rise above zero for 16 days and two days had lows below minus 40 at minus 46 and minus 47.

Chinook hit minus 51 that year, on Feb. 14.

The snow level also was high this year in February, although not near the record set last year in February at 31.8 inches. This year, Havre saw 17.5 inches of snow, the fourth-most on record.

Weather Service did list a record last year for February in Chester, with 20.7 inches recorded. The record snowfall for Chinook in February at 21.5 inches in 1938, at 14.5 inches in 1942 for Big Sandy.

This year, Chinook saw 15.5 inches of snow in February, with Chester recording 16.9 inches.

Data for Big Sandy was not available this morning.

Spring on the way?

The forecast calls for much warmer weather with Weather Service predicting highs in the 30s and lows above zero through the week.

Weather service reported temperatures already in the mid-30s at Big Sandy and in the southern Bear Paws this morning.

Weather Channel's 10-day forecast predicts the trend will continue, with highs hitting the 40s and lows in the teens through March 25.