Winter Storm — North Rocky Mountain Front, Montana

2002-06-08 to 2002-06-10 · North Rocky Mountain Front, Montana

Event narrative

A major late season winter storm affected much of the Rocky Mountain Front from June 8th to June 10th. The snow began to fall at higher elevations on Friday evening, with rain at the lower elevations. Buy Saturday morning, heavy snow was falling across the entire Rocky Mountain Front. The snow was heavy at times throughout Saturday. On Saturday night, blizzard conditions were experienced over the Northern Rocky Mountain Front. The snow began to diminish in intensity on Monday evening. By then, snow accumulations ranged from 3 to 4 feet over the Plains, to 5 to 7 feet above 5000 feet.This snow had a very high moisture content, which caused 301 power poles to break, 232 power pole cross arms to snap off, 521 splices, and over 30 miles of destroyed power lines. The power was out to over 2,500 customers, some for several days. Roads were closed over the entire Rocky Mountain Front region for 2 days. The deep snow cover resulted in the loss of over 3,200 livestock.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5300450. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.