Yet another moist Pacific weather system was forced up and over a cold dome of air, producing heavy snowfall across extreme northwest Montana. Snowfall ranged from 5 to 9 inches in the Kootenai Cabinet Region, to |8 to 16 inches in the northern Flathead Valley.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS MSO wrote it up.
Yet another moist Pacific weather system was forced up and over a cold dome of air, producing heavy snowfall across extreme northwest Montana. Snowfall ranged from 5 to 9 inches in the Kootenai Cabinet Region, to |8 to 16 inches in the northern Flathead Valley.
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 Missoula, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 24, 2:08 PM MST, 2 hours 52 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
Spotters reported 5 to 9 inches of new snow accumulations between Libby and Noxon.
Eight to sixteen inches of new snow accumulations were reported between Whitefish and Columbia Falls.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2008Every state in 2008This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, December 2008
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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 142581, 142582.