Top-tier snow event hits Lincoln County

On Monday morning, many Lincoln County residents woke up to nearly three feet of new snow.

In the recent snowfall, 25-30 inches over this weekend was reported in Libby and surrounding areas of the Yaak and Troy, with some unnoficial reports of four feet.

The National Weather Service is calling this a “top tier snowfall.” According to their data, the last time there was 33 inches in a five-day period was in 1930. The last big snowfall event was in 2006, with 26.5 inches in November. Before that, January of 1966 had 26-inch four-day snowfall, and Jan. 1954 saw 28 inches in four days.

A big snowfall event took place in 1996, during which many structures suffered damage from the weight of snow. However, the National Weather Service only has recordings of 26.5 inches for that four-day event.

Libby, Troy and Eureka school districts were each cancelled on Monday, along with Flathead Valley Community College and Kootenai Valley Head Start. On Tuesday, Libby schools are also cancelled for Tuesday as teachers rallied to shovel snow off the roofs of the elementary and high school.

Power outages were also reported in Troy, with minor outages in Libby.

The weather system was a combination of moist air coming from the west, and arctic air flowing over the continental divide from the east.

According to the NWS, the worst of the snowfall is over as of Monday.

The NWS said that there will be additional snowfall of two to four inches through Tuesday morning for Libby. After that, Tuesday afternoon looks to be dry with a high of 30 degrees.

An inch of snow at the most will accumulate Wednesday morning, and on Thursday, another three to five inches of snow will accumulate, which will transition to rain later in the day.

After Thursday, there doesn’t seem to be a significant weather system for the weekend or the following week.