Montana, 2001

Heavy Snow in Montana, April 2 to 3, 2001

April 2 to 3, 2001 · NWS TFX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 heavy snow, as filed by the National Weather Service.

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Great Falls, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 2, 9:30 AM MST, 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 2, 9:30 AM MST, 1 hour 30 minutes before
SOUTHWEST AND NORTH CENTRAL MONTANA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREAT FALLS MT
930 AM MST MON APR 2 2001
...UPDATES PLANNED FOR ZONES AND STATE...
OF COURSE MAIN FOCUS IS ON WHAT TO DO WITH THE WINTER STORM WARNING THAT
IS OUT FOR LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. LATEST ETA AND NGM HAVE
COME INTO A LITTLE BETTER AGREEMENT ON DETAILS THOUGH THERE ARE STILL
SOME DIFFERENCES. ONE VORTICITY CENTER OVER SW MT WILL SPREAD N DURING
THE DAY BUT THERE MAY NOT BE A WHOLE LOT OF PRECIPITATION WITH IT. THEN
ANOTHER CENTER OVER SW MT IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND
INTENSIFY AS IT MOVES INTO CENTRAL MT BY 12Z. THERE WILL ALSO BE ANOTHER
VORTICITY LOBE OVER FAR NRN MT. SURFACE LOW IS FORECAST TO DEVELOP OVER
N CENTRAL MT BY 12Z. LATEST NGM/ETA HAVE HIGHER OMEGAS AND QPF VALUES
OVER THE FAR NRN ZONES. HIGHEST QPF VALUES ARE OVER THE NRN ROCKY
MOUNTAIN FRONT WHERE LOW LEVEL UPSLOPE WILL BE BEST AND THERE WILL BE
BETTER ISENTROPIC LIFT. EVEN THOUGH HAVE NOT SEEN THE LATEST AVN WILL GO
AHEAD AND MAKE SOME MAJOR CHANGES TO THE WINTER STORM WARNING. WILL DROP
IT OVER SW MT. A GRAY AREA IS CENTRAL MT WHERE LATEST ETA/NGM RUNS
INDICATE THERE COULD SOME DOWNSLOPE. WILL LEAVE IN WARNING BUT TONE DOWN
SNOW AMOUNTS. NEAR AND N OF U.S. ROUTE 2 CURRENT WARNING LOOKS GOOD BUT
WILL PROBABLY CONTINUE IT INTO TUE MORNING. BASED ON LATEST QPF AMOUNTS
AND OTHER MODEL DATA WILL BEEF UP SNOW AMOUNTS FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN
FRONT. FOR TODAY WILL RAISE MOST FORECAST HIGH TEMPERATURES AND LOWER
SOME POPS. BLANK

EXTENDED...LATEST MRF INDICATES NOT MUCH CHANGE FROM PRVIOUS RUN. WILL
NOT MAKE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO CURRENT EXTENDED PACKAGE. SOUTHWEST
FLOW ALOFT DAY 3 WITH WEAK UPSLOPE GRADIENTS. WEAK UPPER TROF MOVES
ACROSS NORTHERN PORTION OF CWA DAY 4 FOR ISOLATED SHOWERS. WEAK
DOWNSLOPE DEVELOPS DAY 5 FOR DRY CONDITIONS. UPPER TROF APPROACHES CWA
FROM THE WEST DAY 6 WITH A BETTER CHANCE OF SHOWERS DAY 7. EMANUEL

CCF NUMBERS
GTF SJ 040/024 035/020 038 08+86
CTB SJ 035/022 030/016 035 08+87
HLN SJ 042/025 038/021 042 08975
BZN SJ 040/022 036/018 040 08974
WEY SJ 038/015 032/010 034 08+64
DLN SJ 042/024 038/022 040 08644
HVR SJ 040/025 035/022 038 08897
LWT SJ 040/026 035/018 037 08886

Event by event

1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Eastern Pondera

When
April 2, 11:00 AM MST to April 3, 10:00 AM MST
Where
Eastern Pondera forecast zone
Reported by
TRAINED SPOTTER

8 inches snowfall reported by spotter in Valier.

What these are

Heavy Snow
Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Montana in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, April 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5241616.