Summer snow coats Whitefish ski resort

Winter is a full season away, but Flathead Valley skiers were left salivating Wednesday after Whitefish Mountain Resort recorded a rare August snowfall.

By noon, an inch of the white stuff had blanketed the upper 1,000 feet of Big Mountain. 

"It certainly has been a strange summer with more precipitation than we're used to, but measurable snow? This time of year? We didn't have this on our bingo card," resort spokesperson Chad Sokol wrote on the ski area's snow report page. 

A winter weather advisory was issued for the mountains of Northwest Montana through Wednesday evening. Locations above 5,000 feet in Glacier National Park and the Seeley Swan region were expected to see 3 to 6 inches of snow.

Glacier National Park closed the Going-to-the-Sun Road over Logan Pass just before 2 p.m. Wednesday. 

The road was closed due to snow and icy conditions from Avalanche Creek to Jackson Glacier Overlook.

People visiting the park were advised to be prepared for raw conditions.

Once the ice melts, the Park Service will reopen the road. Glacier can see snow any month of the year and snowstorms in September are fairly common, but in August, not so much.

The Sun Road typically closes for the winter season over Logan Pass in mid-October.

The weather will bounce back to normal this weekend, with high temperatures in the mid 80s running about 5 to 10 degrees above normal. Labor Day is expected to be sunny and hot.