Arctic blast follows heavy snowfall

By GWEN ALBERS Western News Reporter

An unseasonable 16 to 20 inches of snow fell on Libby from Thanksgiving Day through Monday morning.

A blast of Arctic air followed. Temperatures are expected to hit 5 to 10 below zero by Wednesday night.

"It's not unusual to have snow over Thanksgiving, just not in these quantities," said Brian Henry, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Missoula.

The bulk of the snow in Libby and Troy began falling at about 1 p.m. Sunday and tapered off by late Monday morning. Libby got 12 to 14 inches and elevations over 4,000 feet received about 2 feet, Henry said.

The accumulation from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday morning was 2 to 6 inches in town and 1 to 2 feet in the mountains.

The snow did not result in any serious accidents in the area, said Sgt. Duane Bowers with the Montana Highway Patrol.

"People drove to the road and weather conditions," Bowers said. "Everything we had was very minor. A handful of slide-offs and no major crashes."

Road crews for the county and state were kept busy plowing.

"We were out off and on all weekend and then started out at about 3:30 (p.m. Sunday)," said Dale Byrer, road foreman for the county's Libby district.

Workers used trucks, graders and loaders to remove the snow on 130 to 150 miles of roads.

State road workers put in almost 90 hours from Thanksgiving through Monday morning, said Van Swearingen, supervisor with the Montana Department of Transportation in Libby.

"We've been out since 2 p.m. Sunday - anywhere from two to four trucks all night long," Swearingen said.

The greatest snowfall was in Libby, with less to the south and north.

"Basically between Troy and Libby and the Libby area," he said.

Henry blamed the snowfall on four, back-to-back weather events.

The snow won't disappear too quickly.

"We have an arctic air mass moving through the area right now," he said. "It moved through Kalispell and it's moving down the Highway 2 corridor."

A high of 9 degrees is expected for Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 degrees on Friday. More snow is expected Thursday.

"Thursday there will be much weaker system moving through with a few inches out of that, but nothing unmanageable," Henry said.