Storm dumps snow, cold in region

Beginning-of-December storms brought significant snow to the region, along with bitter cold temperatures the last few days, but slightly warmer weather is expected in this part of Montana for the rest of the week.

After temperatures dropped continually starting Tuesday afternoon — the temperature at the Havre City-County Airport was reported at minus 15 about 9:20 this morning — the forecast called for a high today in Havre of 28 degrees, with temperatures from eastern Blaine County to Liberty County and south to Big Sandy predicted to be in the teens to 20s for the rest of the week, with Hays expected to hit 30 degrees Friday and Rocky Boy to hit the low 30s — just below freezing — the rest of the week

Lows are still expected to be in the single digits to teens in the area, chilly but far warmer than the past few days.

The warmer weather already was starting to hit this morning, with Cut Bank reporting 28 degrees by about 9:30 a.m. and Chester at minus 5, Big Sandy at minus 2, Harlem at minus 12 and Havre already warming four degrees to minus 11.

And it was warmer in the mountains. A national Weather Service station on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in the Bear Paw Mountains at 9:50 a.m. reported 27 degrees and a station in the Little Rocky Mountains near Hays reported 22 degrees.

And the region has seen snow in the past few days and in the first week of December.

National Weather Services said an observer on Rocky Boy reported Tuesday morning a foot of snow in the previous 24 hours, while an observer in Harlem this morning reported about 2 inches in the previous 24 hours.

That was about what Havre received, with the airport station recording 2.1 inches Tuesday.

For the month, the Havre station recorded 9.4 inches of snow for the month, more than 8 inches higher than normal for Dec. 6.

Since July 1, the Havre station has recorded 15.2 inches of snow, more than 5 inches more than the norm of 9.9 inches.

And the snow is bringing the water levels of precipitation up, although not enough yet to make up the deficit for the year and for the past three years.

The Havre station has recorded .38 inches of precipitation for December, with the norm for Dec. 6 .07 inches. From the start of the water year, Oct. 1, Havre has seen 2.41 inches, up 1.1 inches from the norm of 1.31 inches.

But the region is still short for the calendar year, with Havre receiving 9.35 inches, more than 2.5 short of the norm of 11.49 inches.

And it is far short of the accumulated water deficit in the past three years.

From Jan. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30 of this year, the last accumulated data available, the Havre area reported 26.3 inches of precipitation, far short of the norm of 35.06 inches. While the week of snow has helped, for the water year it only added about a third of an inch to the accumulated deficit by Dec. 6.