Weather Challenge for December 2, 2019

Like in so many other places, the weather here in Montana can change rapidly. In fact, Montana holds records for the speed of weather change. I awoke yesterday morning, the first of December, to a light dusting of powder snow everywhere and temperatures hovering around 5° F. I also had a flat tire, but that is off-topic.

It never did get up to freezing yesterday and remained cold all day. At the moment, though, it is 33°. An inch of snow is predicted, but the high temperature is supposed to get all the way up to 42° The warmer temperatures are what brings rapid snowfall accumulations.

Again, we are well off the mark for records. The record low for this day was -4° in 1931 and the record high was a decade later. in 1941, it reached 58°.  All in all, we are doing far better than in some other parts of the country. The northeast is being slammed with snow and cold. It is colder still in Alaska, as one might imagine. The southeast US is slated to get very cold temperatures during the early part of this week. Still, it is milder here than in most of the state. In fact, it is currently snowing near Missoula, about 70 miles from here.

The picture is from St. Mary Lake, where the temperature is almost identical to here. That is melting ice you see on the lens.