A low pressure system brought anomalous moisture and heavy snow to the Northern Continental Divide on the evening of the 11th to 12th. Strong winds aloft moving in around the same time brought high winds along the Rocky Mountain Front.
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The episode as NWS TFX wrote it up.
A low pressure system brought anomalous moisture and heavy snow to the Northern Continental Divide on the evening of the 11th to 12th. Strong winds aloft moving in around the same time brought high winds along the Rocky Mountain Front. These factors combined caused blizzard conditions along the immediate eastern foothills on the Rockies.
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 Mar 11, 1:40 PM MST, 3 hours 20 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Great Falls MT 240 PM MDT Wed Mar 11 2026 .KEY MESSAGES... - A long duration strong wind event impacts areas along the Rocky Mountain Front beginning tonight and expands to all of north-central and southwest Montana Thursday morning. - Snow intensifies along the Continental Divide tonight with moderate to heavy snow and strong winds creating blizzard conditions for a period from late tonight through Thursday morning from Rogers Pass north to Marias Pass. - Winter weather impacts increase across north-central and central Montana Thursday night through Saturday as areas of snow become more widespread. && .DISCUSSION... - Meteorological Overview: A strong westerly mid-upper level jet is approaching the Pacific NW coast this afternoon, sandwiched between a usually deep trough in the Gulf of AK and strong upper level ridging centered off the coast of CA. A fairly robust plume of atmospheric moisture is also embedded within the strong flow, which will produce multiple wind and winter weather impacts as this zone of strong winds and moisture stream across the Northern Rockies and MT over the next several days. Expect the onset of strong winds along the Rocky Mtn Front by midnight tonight before expanding east across the remainder of the area by Thursday morning as the initial wave ejecting out from the Pacific tracks east along the US/Canadian border. Surface low pressure tracks east across southern AB/SK with a WSW-ENE Pacific frontal boundary sagging south through central MT by Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, orographically forced snow already along northern portions of the Continental divide will increase tonight the arrival of the Pacific frontal system and deeper moisture plume. This in tandem with the increasing winds will support an increasing coverage of snow and blowing snow along the divide as far south as MacDonald Pass by late tonight and into the Pintler/Beaverhead Ranges by Thursday morning. Showers tracking east of the continental divide with the initial frontal passage on Saturday will be less numerous but enough enough atmospheric instability will be present for some brief/but intense showers which may begin as rain with a transition to graupel or snow showers. Winds decrease late Thursday through Thursday night as the mid-upper level wind maximum moves off to the east and a secondary Canadian frontal boundary sags south across north-central MT, shifting winds to the north and bringing a cooler airmass southward across the plains. This E-W frontal zone stalls across central MT Friday through Saturday and serves as a focus for precipitation as the Pacific moisture plume continues to stream overhead. Snow within this frontal zone becomes more widespread with greater intensity late Friday through Saturday as an embedded shortwave disturbance moves across the region. The cooler airmass and areas of snow may linger into Sunday before upper level ridging amplifies off the west coast and shifts inland next week, bringing much warmer and drier conditions by the middle of next week. Hoenisch - Forecast Confidence & Scenarios: Strong Wind Hazards: Confidence remains high in a widespread and long duration wind event to impact all of north-central and southwest MT as an unusually strong (80-90kt @700MB) wind maximum streaks across the northern Rockies and MT later tonight through Thursday. Timing of the strongest winds still looks to be late tonight/early Thursday morning for areas immediately adjacent to the Rocky Mtn Front and during the morning hours across most of north-cetral and southwest MT with strong winds lingering into early Thursday afternoon across eastern portions of north-central and southwest MT. Probabilities for gusts in excess of 55 mph are 80-100% for the entire forecast area with a risk for gusts in excess of 75 mph across some areas not typically associated with winds of this magnitude, including a 60- 75% probability from Cascade and Judith Basin counties south through Meagher and Northern Gallatin counties, where timing of the frontal passage and potential for early afternoon mixing will be most favorable to transport higher winds to the surface. We continue to highlight the longer duration of strong winds (6+ hrs of >55mph gusts) as a factor that can increase the risk for wind damage and power outages as has been seen in other recent wind events. Winter Weather Hazards: Blizzard conditions are expected to develop tonight near the continental divide from Glacier NP to as far south as Rogers Pass as the higher intensity snowfall rates and stronger winds develop. Further south along the divide, snowfall amounts decrease, but periods of more intense snow and winds could create localized periods of blowing snow with visibility 1/2 mile or less from MacDonald Pass south through NW Beaverhead county. Areas adjacent to the East Glacier Region and Rocky Mtn front may see some minor snow accumulations as snow showers move off the continental divide following the cold front Thursday morning. The combination of very strong winds (gusts in excess of 70mph), some fresh snowfall and downstream wind transport of snow from areas to the west, could also produce reduced visibility in blowing snow, though not to the extent as areas further west. A Winter Storm Watch continues for much of north-central and central MT for the Thursday night through Saturday afternoon period. Confidence is high in a multi-day period of snowfall affecting these areas with the focus for more impactful snow amounts shifted some towards late Friday into Saturday. Hoenisch && .AVIATION... 11/18z TAF Period Initial concern this TAF period will be for breezy winds through the remainder of the afternoon and early evening before subsiding briefly. Winds aloft will already be increasing this evening as surface winds subside, which will result in at least isolated instances of LLWS. Confidence in this occurring was too low to place in any TAF at this time however. Later this evening and tonight surface winds increase again, becoming strong over the plains and adjacent areas between 6Z and 12Z. These stronger winds spread southward through the morning, remaining gusty through the day. Low-level turbulence will be common as early as 6Z over the plains, spreading to all areas by late morning Thursday. All the while, precipitation along the Continental Divide will obscure mountains through the TAF period, occasionally making inroads further east of the divide. -AM && .PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS... GTF 38 48 28 35 / 20 40 70 80 CTB 28 41 20 31 / 50 40 50 50 HLN 37 49 32 44 / 40 60 90 90 BZN 35 54 33 49 / 10 30 70 80 WYS 26 45 31 44 / 50 50 60 80 DLN 34 53 36 54 / 20 30 50 50 HVR 31 45 20 34 / 50 50 60 30 LWT 31 47 23 31 / 20 60 90 80 && .TFX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Winter Weather Advisory until 6 PM MDT this evening for East Glacier Park Region-Southern Rocky Mountain Front. Winter Weather Advisory from 3 AM to 3 PM MDT Thursday for Northern High Plains-Southern High Plains. Blizzard Warning from 6 PM this evening to 3 PM MDT Thursday for East Glacier Park Region-Southern Rocky Mountain Front. Winter Storm Warning from 3 PM Thursday to 6 PM MDT Saturday for East Glacier Park Region-Southern Rocky Mountain Front. Winter Storm Watch from Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon for Bears Paw Mountains and Southern Blaine-Cascade County below 5000ft-Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera-Eastern Pondera and Eastern Teton-Eastern Toole and Liberty-Fergus County below 4500ft-Judith Basin County and Judith Gap-Little Belt and Highwood Mountains-Northern High Plains-Snowy and Judith Mountains-Southern High Plains-Western and Central Chouteau County. High Wind Warning from midnight tonight to 6 PM MDT Thursday for Beaverhead and Western Madison below 6000ft-Big Belt, Bridger and Castle Mountains-Canyon Ferry Area-Cascade County below 5000ft-Eastern Pondera and Eastern Teton-Eastern Toole and Liberty-Elkhorn and Boulder Mountains-Gallatin Valley-Gallatin and Madison County Mountains and Centennial Mountains-Gates of the Mountains-Helena Valley-Judith Basin County and Judith Gap- Little Belt and Highwood Mountains-Madison River Valley-Meagher County Valleys-Missouri Headwaters-Northwest Beaverhead County- Ruby Mountains and Southern Beaverhead Mountains-Upper Blackfoot and MacDonald Pass-Western and Central Chouteau County. Winter Storm Warning from 6 PM this evening to noon MDT Friday for Northwest Beaverhead County-Upper Blackfoot and MacDonald Pass. High Wind Warning from 6 PM this evening to 3 PM MDT Thursday for East Glacier Park Region-Eastern Glacier, Western Toole, and Central Pondera-Northern High Plains-Southern High Plains- Southern Rocky Mountain Front. High Wind Warning from 3 AM to 6 PM MDT Thursday for Bears Paw Mountains and Southern Blaine-Fergus County below 4500ft-Hill County-Northern Blaine County-Snowy and Judith Mountains. && http://www.weather.gov/greatfalls
Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Great Falls MT
102 PM MDT Wed Mar 11 2026
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1217 PM Non-Tstm Wnd Gst 4 W Havre 48.55N 109.77W
03/11/2026 M52 MPH Hill MT ASOS
ASOS station KHVR Havre Airport.
&&
AMThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind, 1 heavy snow, 1 blizzard. Local standard time, as filed.
Social media post from Teton Pass Ski Resort reports 14 inches of storm total snow.
Blizzard conditions with winds routinely gusting 35 to 50 mph from 10:30pm March 11 from 10:00am MDT on the 12th. Montana Department of Transportation reported blizzard conditions between Two Medicine Bridge and Marias Pass. National Park Senser Milk River Ridge also reported a 12.1 change in snow depth on the 11th.
Mesonet station LGPVC Logan Pass measured a 98 mph wind gust. Mesonet station SNPMT Sunpoint also measured high wind gusts.
Mesonet station GPKM8 Gates Park measured a 60 mph wind gust.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Montana in 2026Every state in 2026This day in weather historyWarnings in Montana, March 2026
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 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1325519, 1325515, 1325517, 1325520.