Minus 15 weather hits the Flathead

Lows as extreme as minus 27 up the North Fork at Polebridge and 15 below zero at Glacier Park International Airport were reported Dec. 30 as an Arctic front brought bone-chilling cold weather to the Flathead.

The mercury dropped to minus 20 in Creston, minus 14 at the summit of Big Mountain, minus 6 atop Blacktail Mountain, minus 19 at Swan Lake and minus 26 at Many Glacier on the east side of the Continental Divide.

The bone-chilling temperatures, however, were nowhere near record levels. The Flathead Valley saw a record low for Dec. 30 of minus 35 in 1968.

And this week’s cold snap is expected to be short-lived compared to the historic subzero stretch of weather in 1978-1979. The Christmas season 36 years ago  featured 10 low-temperature records in 11 days, starting with minus 29 on Dec. 29, 1978. The high temperature on Dec. 31 was 20 below zero.

The National Weather Service in Missoula forecasts that current cold temperatures will moderate slightly over the next few days. The high in the Flathead Valley on New Year’s Eve is forecasted to be 10 degrees, with a low of minus 1 overnight. The New Year’s Day forecast is for a high of 9 degrees and low of 4 degrees overnight. Daytime highs should warm into the 20s this weekend.

Snowfall of 5.1 inches on Dec. 27  in Kalispell did set a record, breaking the old record of 4.1 inches for Dec. 27 set in 1917.