Heavy Snow — Little Belt and Highwood Mountains, Montana

2023-04-18 to 2023-04-20 · Little Belt and Highwood Mountains, Montana

Event narrative

COOP observer located seven miles south of Shonkin had an event total snow amount of 33 inches. Multiple Snotel sites reported snow exceeding 10 inches, including snotel equipment at Stinger Creek which estimated 22 inches storm total. Snotels at Onion Park and Spur Peak also reported storm total snow in excess of 10 inches. A public report north of Monarch reported 10 inches from the evening of 4/18 into the morning of 4/19.

Wider weather episode

A pair of upper lows became cut off over southern and eastern Montana extending south and east into the Dakotas and Wyoming from a negatively-tilted trough centered off the Pacific Northwest coastline. This cut-off low spun in place through Thursday the 20th. The result was for significant accumulating snow in eastern portions of North-central Montana, with additional heavy snow across much of the rest of Southwest and Central MT.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1093963. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.