Mountains keep frigid air away from Flathead

While deep cold will continue to grip lands to the east, the Flathead Valley will be in something of a banana belt by comparison although some snow is expected this week.

Although the valley temperature dipped to minus 5 Monday morning, increasing cloud cover will arrive by this morning and highs are expected to be around 27 degrees today, according to the National Weather Service in Missoula. 

By tonight, the chance of precipitation increases to 70 percent with up to 2 inches of snow forecast in the valley.

On Wednesday, there could be more scant snow along with highs just above 30 degrees while Thursday an additional 1 to 2 inches of snow could fall with the high temperature near 36.

The much colder weather east of the Continental Divide couldn’t quite spill over the Northern Rockies into Western Montana, meteorologist Genki Kino said. 

“Without these mountains we would be a lot colder,” he said. “The colder the air the denser the air, and it’s harder for that air to spill over the mountains.”