Storm front dumps snow
Berl Tiskus
Mail carrier Brandi Elliot fights the snow on her delivery route in Ronan Monday morning as neighbors and businesses dig out from the snowstorm.
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A continual snowstorm throughout the weekend piled up enough of the white stuff to cause some schools to cancel classes on the first day back from holiday break and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to declare a snow day Monday.
Area residents were shoveling out Monday, while street and transportation departments worked all hours to try and keep roads and highways clear.
Satellite weather maps show a white mass over western Montana.
The National Weather Service Forecast office in Missoula has winter storm advisories blanketing western Montana. In the Mission Valley, these are either places that are going to receive more snow or areas that have had snow and were getting hit by freezing rain, according to metereologist Jeff Kitzmiller. In general, he said weather spotters reported from 8 to 12 inches of snow around Flathead Lake by Monday morning.
According to the NOAA website, on Monday the forecast called for “a widespread mix of heavy snow and freezing rain,” which was expected to cause dangerous travel conditions across the Northern Rockies through early Tuesday.
Montana Highway Patrol troopers in Lake County were also busy, with more than 17 traffic incidents logged between Sunday and Monday afternoon. Two of the crashes caused injuries.Storm front dumps snow
