While snow is still in the forecast, Northwest Montana appears to have dodged the worst of a recent winter storm that stretched from Seattle to the Rockies.
According to National Weather Service forecaster Marty Whitmore, much of the precipitation headed south, pounding the Bitterroot Mountain Range along the Montana and Idaho border.
“Those mountains are just going to keep getting hammered,” Whitmore said during a teleconference on Wednesday afternoon.
Anywhere from 15 to 25 more inches were expected to fall in the mountains in west-central Montana and central Idaho, adding to the 12 to 24 inches that had already fallen by midday Wednesday.
Less snow was predicted for the Flathead Valley, with another 2 to 5 inches expected to fall in the Kalispell area through Thursday, with a few more inches in the mountains. Whitmore warned that the weather would still impair travel. It led to an accident on U.S. Highway 93 near Whitefish Hills Drive on Wednesday morning, which temporarily slowed traffic.
Whitmore said the current weather system would pass by Thursday night, but another, smaller, winter storm was expected on Friday or Saturday.