Cold weather, snow sock in this week

Snow that kept falling and melting at lower elevations in this part of The Golden Triangle built up in the Bear Paw Mountains, allowing Bear Paw Ski Bowl to open for its 59th season, and weather generally cooperated.

Relatively mild winter temperatures and snow flurries greeted people out to hit the slopes, but things have turned colder and snowier since.

Temperatures dropped steadily Sunday, as did light snow, with the low at the Havre recording station near the Havre City-County airport hitting minus 4 by midnight and residents of Havre seeing the temps drop to minus 9 or colder by 6 a.m. Monday.

The low Monday, recorded at the airport at 11:08 p.m., hit minus 13, and the high for the day was minus 4.

The cold and snow follows months of heavy snowstorms, starting in late September, dropping a layer of snow on the ground that would then melt off in warmer weather that followed.

December had days below freezing, but many days in the 30s, 40s and 50s, with Havre recording a high for the month Dec. 21 at 59 degrees.

The region continued to be relatively balmy through the first part of January, with highs in the 30s and 40s much of the first week and a high of 52 degrees - still not a record - recorded at the Havre airport Jan. 5.

The record high for that day was set in 2012 at 60 degrees,

The record cold for that day was minus 33 in 2004.

The cold weather this week also is not near record level. The minus 13 Monday is more than 20 degrees warmer than the record cold temperature, minus 35 experienced Jan. 13 in 1916, 1979 and 1997.

The forecast has moderated a bit from what forecasters expected late last week, which included a low predicted for Havre tonight at minus 26.

Today's forecast is slightly warmer, with the low for Havre expected to hit minus 20, and the high Wednesday at minus 5.

Snow showers also are expected to taper off tonight.

Temperatures are expected to drop into the single digits below zero through the end of the week, with highs in the single digits above zero, before starting to warm a bit on the weekend.

Friday is still expected to see a low below zero, but highs are predicted to hit the teens and lows going above zero or slightly below zero farther east Saturday night.

Highs should creep into the 20s by Sunday with lows in the single digits or low teens, and hit near freezing by Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday.