'Atmospheric river' dumps more rain and snow across the West

Staff and wire

While frigid, icy weather continues to be locked over most of Montana, a storm fueled by a plume of moisture stretching over the Pacific Ocean almost to Hawaii dumped rain on California today, boosting the threat of debris flows from saturated slopes and flooding from rising creeks and rivers.

In north-central Montana, the snow that fell Wednesday — setting a new record for the day in Havre at 3.4 inches — had ended this morning, but temperatures again had dropped.

For the first time since Feb. 3, the temperature in Havre rose above zero, with the National Weather Service record...