Hunter Jeppe, 10, cheers on the Big Sandy football team from a mound of snow Saturday. The Pioneers topped Valier 38-32 in overtime on Saturday to win a shot at the state Class C championship. They will take on Hot Springs Saturday.
Winter snowstorm Brutus did indeed visit Montana last week, dropping snow across the state including nearly a foot of snow in Havre and temperatures radically dropping over the weekend, but the forecast now is for more moderate weather later in the week.
National Weather Service does still have a winter weather advisory in effect from Hill County and west, warning of gusty winds coming off the Rocky Mountains causing blowing and drifting snow that could impact visibility and close off some smaller roads. The winter advisory, as of this morning, was in effect through 6 tonight, including Hill, Liberty and Chouteau counties, with the advisory warning the impacts would be more severe farther west, including in Teton, Glacier and Pondera counties.
The storm that hit north-central Montana Thursday night impacted residents, causing cancellation of some Veterans Day events, closing down some schools including Havre Public Schools and Montana State University-Northern, and keeping city, county and state road department employees busy trying to keep roads passable.
It didn’t stop the Big Sandy Pioneers, however — the Class C Six-Man football team defeated rival Valier High School Saturday to advance on to the state championship game.
Weather Service reports Havre received 11.5 inches of snow so far this month, at its reporting station just west of town at the Havre City-County Airport. It also reports the cold weather that was expected Saturday night did set in, with the low reported Sunday at 8:19 a. m. at 8-below-zero at the airport.
The forecast calls for rapidly warming temperatures, with Weather Service predicting a high of 32 Tuesday and into the 40s by the weekend.
The Weather Channel has an even faster predicted warming trend, with 40s in the forecast for Tuesday and, in its longer-range forecast, a high near 50 by the middle of next week.
AccuWeather.com also predicts temperatures in the 40s by the weekend and predicts a high of 50 by a week from Tuesday.
All three services forecast sunny or partly cloudy skies through the period.
The storm also dropped greatly needed moisture in the area. Although the region centered on Havre fared better than much of the state, with the yearly precipitation total staying above normal despite the extremely dry period in late- July, August and September, Brutus has significantly increased the precipitation total for the year.
As of this morning, Weather Service reports that at its recording station Havre has received. 59 inches of precipitation for November. That takes the total to date to 12.08 inches since Jan. 1, more than 1 ½ inches above the normal for this time of year of 10.54 inches.
