Winter expected back today

After another stretch of weather that the region normally might see in the late spring, including a near-record high Tuesday, the region is expected to return to — relatively — cold temperatures and see freezing rain and snow, with a winter weather advisory going into effect this afternoon.

Havre saw a high of 63 Tuesday at the city-county airport, just short of the record 66 degrees, set on March 2, 1905.

But the region will see cooling temperatures today, with highs expected to be in the 40s and dropping into the 20s later in the week.

This is the latest in wildly swinging weather trends, with periods of bitter, subzero temperatures mixed with periods of warm weather including near-record and record highs.

But the snow and precipitation the region has seen has not lifted it out of its drought conditions as yet.

At the Havre station, .41 inches of precipitation has been recorded this year, compared to a norm of .82 inches.

With snow and rain last fall and around the Christmas holiday, the water year — from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 — is better but still at a moisture deficit, with 2.25 inches of precipitation recorded compared to a norm of 2.46 inches.

But more precipitation is in the forecast, including freezing rain expected to bring dangerous driving conditions and potential stress to young livestock, National Weather Service reports.

The winter weather advisory is in effect from 5 p.m. today through 5 p.m. Saturday. It includes Liberty, Chouteau, Hill and Blaine counties.

The precipitation will start off as mostly a mix of rain and freezing rain with some snow at the Canadian border tonight through Thursday, then it will change over to mostly snow after midnight Thursday night,” the advisory posted at 2:35 this morning says.

The advisory says total snow accumulation of up to 3 inches is expected in this area with total ice accumulation from a light glaze to a few hundredths of an inch.

The advisory warns of potentially dangerous driving conditions starting tonight.

“Roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will likely become slick and hazardous,” it says. “Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the Thursday morning and evening and Thursday commutes, and they may continue into Friday morning.”

It advises people to slow down and use caution from driving. The latest road conditions can be obtained by calling 5-1-1 or visiting the Montana Department of Transportation Road Report webpage at https://www.mdt.mt.gov/travinfo/detailed.aspx or its interactive map at https://www.511mt.net .

It is the latest in widely varied weather. Since the Christmas and New Year holidays the weather has been generally spring- or even summer-like, with flashes of cold and snow mixing in.

The holidays brought bitter below-zero temperatures, and some snow, but that was followed by highs getting into the 30s and 40s and even 50s by mid-January.

Then temperatures started to drop again for a few days, with a bit more snow falling.

Then they rose again, and had stayed unseasonably warm until late in February when cold and snow again hit the area including below-zero weather and a bit more snow.

But then temperatures rose again the last few days of February and the first day of March, before the latest weather system started to encroach with colder temperatures and snow on the way.

The latest three-month climate prediction map from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts for this area a slight chance of below-normal temperatures for this region and an equal chance of below- and above-normal precipitation.