Winter storm slams east of Divide
An historic early fall storm hammered the high country and locales east of the Continental Divide, but the lower Flathead Valley saw high winds, but virtually no snow.
Browning reported 4 feet of snow, St. Mary 45 inches, Heart Butte 34 inches and East Glacier Park 28 inches with blizzard conditions that started Friday night and ran through Sunday.
But the most snow came at Babb. The little town outside of Many Glacier saw a whopping 52 inches from the storm, according to the National Weather Service in Great Falls. That’s on par with a February 2017 storm that dropped 60 inches in Babb.
There was a clear line west of the divide that marked the snowfall. At Essex and near the Goat Lick, it was just light winds and moderate snow on Sunday afternoon.
At Snowslip, just a few miles east, it was a full-on blizzard.
At the height of the storm, the weather closed U.S. Highway 2 from East Glacier to Browning and Highway 89 in the region as well. By Monday morning, the roads had reopened.
It’s hard to say exactly if the storm was a record-breaker, because the records themselves are spotty. The Weather Service has records for Browning that date back to the 1890s. But from the 1980s to today, records are spotty. In 1908, Browning saw 24 inches in a September storm. In 1934, it actually got colder — 4 below zero — but not as much snow during a storm that dropped about 26 inches at Babb from Sept. 21-25.
Glacier National Park closed all of its east side roads save for a small section of the Going-to-the-Sun Road near St. Mary. The Chief Mountain Road and border crossing closed early for the season due to the storm.
Glacier’s east side roads may open if conditions improve, but it will take a prolonged period of warm weather to melt the snow. Glacier typically doesn’t plow roads in the fall. Logan Pass, in all likelihood, is closed for the season. The pass typically closes in mid-October anyway.
The Sun Road on the west side is open to Avalanche Creek.
The Flathead Valley saw high winds that toppled trees and knocked out power and Internet services in some areas Saturday. Highway 35 along Flathead Lake was closed for awhile on Saturday morning due to down trees on powerlines on the roadway.
This week’s weather should be cool, with highs only in the low 50s in the valleys and 30s in higher elevations with lows in the 20s and 30s. That’s not entirely bad news — warm weather all at once would melt the snow rapidly, causing flooding. Next week temperatures could moderate back to normal levels.