North-central Montana got its first serious winter storm of the year, two days before the start of spring, with blizzard conditions taking out electricity in a huge block in the region, highways closed, businesses shut down and schools sending students home. Power was restored to Havre, at least at some locations, shortly before 4:15 p.m. Northwestern reported it would take longer to restore power south and east of Havre after electrical service was restored here. The National Weather Service Monday morning upgraded its winter storm warning for the area to a blizzard warning for Blaine and Hill Counties through midnight. By 12:30 Weather Service extended the blizzard warning to Liberty and Toole counties. The winter storm took out power from Havre to eastern Blaine County and south to Big Sandy, as well as piling snow and creating dangerous driving conditions. U.S. Highway 2 between Chester and Chinook was closed by noon, as well. Reportedly, downed power lines between Havre and Chinook was part of the reason for the highway closure. Despite temperatures in the 30s, with snow melting as it fell, some areas of Havre had as much as nine inches accumulated by 12:30 p.m., although some of that could have been due to drifting from the high winds. The wind at times blew the snow sidewise as it fell, with visibility as low as zero feet. A reader posted on the Havre Daily Facebook site that power went out in Big Sandy about 8 a.m., with school let out there by 9 a.m. Power went out around Havre starting about 10 a.m., with Northern Montana Hospital, the Hill County Courthouse and Havre's city hall reporting they were operating on emergency generators. A reader posted on the Havre Facebook site that power also was out in Kremlin, although Northwestern Energy could not confirm that power was out west of Havre. People in western Hill County served by Hill County Electric reported they still had electricity. Hill County Electric's website reported that seven power substations in were out of service, and at least some could not be repaired until Northwestern repaired its high-tensions wires. Northwestern Energy spokesperson Claudia Rapkoch said other areas of the state also experienced power outages due to the winter storm. Harlem school officials reported they had power, although they closed the schools for safety reasons. The Weather Service Monday morning upgraded its winter storm warning, still in effect south and west of Hill County at that time, with heavy snow in the forecast throughout the blizzard warning, and continued snow expected through Tuesday morning. The Weather Service warning said the storm passing through the area was likely to drop four to eight inches of snow in the plains and 10 to 20 inches in the mountains. The amount falling in Havre appeared to have surpassed that by noon. Winds, predicted at 25 mph to 40 mph topping out with gusts up to 60 mph, severely impacted visibility, with line-of-site less than a half-mile at times and near zero at some points. The storm came at the end of an extremely warm and dry winter, with nearly no snow accumulation. That weather led to dangerously dry conditions and severe grassfires, including a 12,000-acre fire last week between Havre and Chinook and another massive fire just outside of Great Falls. This happened during a period of the year the grass normally is under a deep blanket of snow. An early grassfire also took out thousands of acres in Glacier County near Browning in January. This week's storm was predicted early in the weekend, with two different storm systems coming through Montana. The first went through southern and western Montana earlier in the weekend and the next storm expected to push up through north-central Montana Sunday. After a comparatively light snowfall Sunday, the snow began to dump on the region Monday morning.
After the power outages, Havre schools began contacting parents to take their children home, although the schools remained open and teachers staying through the day. Schools at Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation also were reportedly closed due to the snowstorm, and Harlem schools shut down due to the closure of the highways and dangerous driving conditions for rural students.
