Idaho, 2025

Winter Weather in Idaho, December 18 to 19, 2025

December 18 to 19, 2025 · NWS MSO · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

An atmospheric river brought heavy snow and strong winds to the Clearwater and Bitterroot Mountains.

Where it happened

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.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
2

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 MSO wrote it up.

An atmospheric river brought heavy snow and strong winds to the Clearwater and Bitterroot Mountains.

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 Missoula, MT wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 17, 1:25 PM MST, 21 hours 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Dec 17, 1:25 PM MST, 21 hours 20 minutes before
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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 winter weather. Local standard time, as filed.

Winter Weather, Eastern Lemhi County

When
December 18, 10:45 AM MST to 10:00 PM MST
Where
Eastern Lemhi County forecast zone
Reported by
COOP Observer
Coordinates
44.943, -113.933 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

In Salmon, the COOP observer reported 5 inches of snowfall. Lost Trail Pass saw periods of heavy snow and blowing snow at times. The Moose Creek SNOTEL, located just south of the pass, reported 14 inches of snow depth increase during the storm.

Winter Weather, Southern Clearwater Mountains

When
December 18, 3:00 PM PST to December 19, 4:00 PM PST
Where
Southern Clearwater Mountains forecast zone
Reported by
Mesonet
Coordinates
45.844, -115.467 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The Idaho side of the Bitterroot crest absorbed heavy moisture from the atmospheric river, leading to high-impact winter conditions right along the Lolo Pass border. Further down the Highway 12 corridor at Powell, intense snowfall rates dropped 5 inches of snow in just a 6-hour period during the afternoon and evening of December 18. In Dixie, 6.5 inches of snow fell.

What these are

Winter Weather
Snow, sleet or freezing rain below warning levels that still caused disruption, damage or casualties.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Idaho in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in Idaho, December 2025

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: 1307757, 1307754.