Havre closing in on record snowfall for year

Though spring - technically - has sprung, as forecasters predicted last month, the winter that wouldn't quit hasn't quit.

Snow fell over the weekend, with nearly an inch accumulating Sunday by midnight in Havre - already listed by Weather Channel last week as the U.S. city with the worst winter of the year, and closing in on breaking its record for the most snowfall in a year - and close to another half-inch recorded by this morning.

The snow and cold didn't stop people with traditional Easter egg hunts, however. Scores of children - and parents and members of the Havre Optimist Club - braved the 20-degree weather Easter Sunday for the annual Optimist Easter egg hunt, held this year in the south parking lot at Montana State University-Northern.

The Havre High School Key Club held its March of Dimes hunt Saturday, but moved it inside.

The Jaycees and Havre Eagles Club still held their indoor Easter party, but the egg hunt at Eagles Park was canceled.

Timber Creek Village and Northern Montana Care Center, like the Key Club, avoided the winter weather by holding indoor egg hunts.

And that weather isn't expected to stop any time soon.

National Weather Service has a winter storm warning in effect through midnight tonight from eastern Glacier County through Blaine County and south throughout central Montana, stretching into southeast Montana as well.

The warning calls for periods of heavy snow with accumulations of 2 to 4 inches on the plains and 5 to 10 inches in the mountains.

The warning advises that travel could be difficult with blowing and drifting snow and the weather also will be difficult for young livestock.

A winter weather advisory is in place for Montana west of the Continental Divide and also in central and southeast Phillips County, including Malta, with only the northeastern corner of the state not listed as in a warning or advisory.

This continues a winter that started to blast the region with a record-setting storm Oct. 2-3 that damaged trees, blocked streets and roads and knocked out power from Chester to Malta, leaving some without electricity for more than a week.

Then December turned bitterly wintrish, with snow and subzero temperatures locking in from Christmas through early January, with more popping in throughout the month.

Then winter really hit in February.

By Feb. 19, 31.8 inches of snow had fallen, nearly doubling the previous record for the entire month, set in 1978 at 18.6 inches.

Weather Service only recorded 4.4 inches falling on Havre in March, but the storm warning today - and snow predicted to fall through Sunday - could break the record for the most snow falling on Havre in a year.

The total from July 1 through April 1 - the records actually were broken in mid-March - already pushed back the previous second- and third-place years, 1978 with 78.6 inches and 1977 with 75.3 inches. So far, Havre has recorded 82.7 inches since July 1.

With the snow predicted this week, Havre could end up setting a new record. With 10.8 inches of new snow, Havre would beat the previous record of 93.4 inches set in 1981.