Montana buried by early-season snowstorm

A well-predicted heavy, early-season snowstorm affected 10 states and dropped as much as 4 feet of snow during the last week of September.

A well-predicted heavy, early-season snowstorm affected 10 states and dropped as much as 4 feet of snow in Montana, during the last week of September.

This was the first widespread snow of the season. It came to many areas when the leaves were still on the trees, sparking fears of massive power outages, but I think the population was just too sparse. Traffic accidents were reported, of course.

Glacier National Park webcam September 29, 2019.

That said, over 4 feet of snow did fall in Montana, drifting over 7 feet. There was over 2 feet in Washington state and 3 feet in Alberta, Canada.

Preliminary Montana snow totals from the late-September storm.

The top amount was 52 inches at Babb. This was close to AccuWeather's Local StormMax forecast of 48 inches, but it was way below the NWS's NDFD database forecast max of 79.9 inches (see map below). You might think that meant there weren't enough measuring stations, but there were at least 8 SNOTEL stations in the area of the heaviest snow. This proves that the models, even tweaked by meteorologists, sometimes overestimate things.

NWS NDFD map showing amounts expected between 72 and 96 inches of snow.