Name: Heavy Snow in Montana, February 11 to 12, 2020
Start: 2020-02-11T06:00
End: 2020-02-12T06:00
Location: Montana

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 happened

The episode as NWS TFX wrote it up.

A secondary push of colder air surges south across N-central MT during the early morning hours in association with a strong area of surface high pressure moving south from AB/SK. This should be the final but strongest surge of northerly winds southward across the forecast area with gusts to 30kts across much of north-central MT for several hrs, spreading south into SW MT where gusts to 25 kts will funnel southwards through the valleys. Snow remains most persistent over the central MT Mtns where several additional inches of snowfall are expected before precipitation diminishes with enhanced areas of snowfall during the morning, also likely near the Elkhorn, Tobacco Root and Gallatin Ranges of SW MT. Snow showers or flurries are likely through the morning over areas north of Great Falls. Expect very poor conditions from areas just east of Great Falls to Lewistown and south to the Little Belts and Big Snowy mountain ranges, where snowfall will be most persistent and gusty winds will continue to create significant blowing and drifting snow through the morning before winds and snow decrease. Temperatures fall through the morning as the cold airmass slides south into eastern MT and temperatures become steady in the 20s for many locations and only in the teens for Blaine and Hill counties.

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 Feb 11, 4:40 AM MST, 1 hour 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 11, 4:40 AM MST, 1 hour 20 minutes before

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Event by event

1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.

Heavy Snow, Meagher

When: February 11, 6:00 AM MST to February 12, 6:00 AM MST
Where: Meagher forecast zone
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Measured 28 inches new snow last 24 hrs. ski area web report. 7 sse Neihart.

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 2020 Every state in 2020 This day in weather history Warnings in Montana, February 2020

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 874872.