Heavy Snow — Madison River Valley, Montana

2023-01-26 to 2023-01-28 · Madison River Valley, Montana

Event narrative

Norris Madison Observer, located about 4 miles east of McAllister, reported an event total snow amount of 16 inches. 12 inches fell over a 24 hour period ending around sunrise on Jan 28th.

Wider weather episode

A long duration winter storm event occurred from roughly January 26 through January 28th as a powerful storm system affected much of the western United States. Periods of snow, heavy at times (especially across the mountains) occurred. Event total snow amounts of 5 to 10 inches across area valleys and the Plains were common with upwards of 2 feet of snow falling across portions of area mountains. The snow was followed by a seasonably strong arctic outbreak. Southwest Montana felt the brunt of the arctic airmass with several locations experiencing wind chill values of -40 F or colder (isolated areas having wind chill values of -50 F to -60 F), with isolated locations reaching actual air temperatures of -40 F.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1074758. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.