A feed of Pacific moisture ahead of a deep low pressure system brought accumulating snow to elevations above 3500 feet in western Montana. Locations most impacted included Lookout Pass and Lolo Pass where snow accumulations ranged between eight and twelve inches.
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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.
A feed of Pacific moisture ahead of a deep low pressure system brought accumulating snow to elevations above 3500 feet in western Montana. Locations most impacted included Lookout Pass and Lolo Pass where snow accumulations ranged between eight and twelve inches. In addition, an entering jet stream produced some gusty winds over the higher terrain.
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 Feb 24, 12:18 AM MST, 1 hour 42 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.
Trained spotter at Lookout Pass Visitor Center reported ten inches of snow at 5pm on the 24th. On the morning of the 25th, they had recieved another fourteen inches of snow. This made a storm total snow of twenty four inches.
Department of Transportation reported 8 inches of new snow accumulations over Lookout Pass.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, February 2009
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: 153653, 153652.