Weather Service says start to April coldest ever
Peaceful spring snow flurries accumulate along the banks of the Whitefish River on Easter Sunday. Temperatures hovered around 30 degrees for most of the day. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
The first half of April was the coldest ever, on average, the National Weather Service in Missoula reported.
The first 16 days of April saw a mean average temperature of just 30.3 degrees. The coldest was 1953, when the 15-day mean average was 34.3 degrees.
Records date back to 1899.
The region’s snowpack is holding steady. The Flathead River Basin is at 102% of average.
While eastern Montana was pummeled with heavy snow and blizzard conditions, the Kalispell and Glacier National Park area saw far less, but it was very windy.
On Easter Sunday, kids gathered eggs through the flurries, though Sunday was actually somewhat pleasant, as it didn’t see the bone-chilling east and northeast wind that we had earlier in the week.
This week still promises to be unsettled, with snow and rain and highs in the 40s and 50s.