Winter hits with a vengeance

LAKE COUNTY — A steady snow has persisted for much of the day Thursday, but the worst of the accumulation is over, according to Marty Whitmore, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Missoula.

NWS recorded 12 inches of snow in St. Ignatius, 8 inches in Round Butte and 1.5 inches in Swan Lake. The North Fork of the Jocko received 44 inches as of 6 a.m. Thursday.

"The character of the snow has changed quite a bit so we're really not picking up the accumulation as with some of the big flakes we saw yesterday," Whitmore said. "Will probably get several inches again overnight."

With the onset of warmer temperatures across much of the region, the primary concern will turn to road conditions when wet surfaces refreeze overnight. Frozen surfaces will be an issue for the morning commute.

The next system of concern will come through Friday night through Saturday, bringing with it warm air, which may lead to freezing rain when precipitation from the warm air hits the chilly air already in place here in the Mission Valley.

"This next system is not going to be a huge precipitation producer, but it could complicate what's on the ground already," Whitmore said. "I'm worried about freezing rain late Friday night through Saturday morning and then colder air coming in behind that system freezing all surfaces Saturday night."

That means more travel concerns for Sunday morning, along with a good chance of banded snow showers that persist over the same area for long periods of time, massing unpredictable amounts of accumulation.

Snowpack in the Flathead Basin, which was at 67 percent of average on Jan 15, is now at 72 percent.

The West Central Montana Avalanche Center advises high avalanche danger on slopes that are steeper than 30 degrees in the West Central Montana backcountry for Jan. 18.

"This storm started out very cold and deposited some low density fluff," Dudley Improta wrote on the center's website. "The snow falling today is a bit heavier with higher density. This is a very unstable situation; warmer, denser snow sitting on top of the lighter, less dense snow."

The avalanche warning was extended through Thursday evening and will likely extend through tomorrow morning as well.

Lookout Pass recorded 33 inches in the past 48 hours, 12 in the last 24 with four to five additional inches expected overnight. Whitefish Mountain Resort posted 4 inches overnight and Blacktail Mountain's snow report said 8 inches of new snow.