Spring Storm Brings Moisture, High Winds To Northeast Montana

A strong spring storm brought much-needed moisture to northeast Montana, in the form of both rain and snow. The accompanying winds reduced visibility on Thursday morning; a blizzard warning was in effect for Valley County and McCone County until early afternoon.

The wind and wet snow combination was not good for power poles; we've seen and heard reports of many downed poles throughout Valley County. Glasgow was without power for about 4 hours, with most power restored to the city by 1:30 p.m. As of Thursday afternoon, crews were still working on many rural areas of the county. 

The National Weather Service office in Glasgow officially recorded 1.58 inches of moisture. Other remote sensors didn't receive quite as much, but Glasgow's rain gauge is a little more advanced. Here's the explanation from the National Weather Service Glasgow office Facebook page:

Here are the rainfall totals from "automated" rain gauges for the last 48 hours as of 2:45 PM. Keep in mind these are "rain" gauges and will miss any snow-to-liquid totals. At Glasgow, the airport ASOS has a "heated" gauge that melts down the snow for realistic totals and is likely more representative than the surrounding rain gauges, which are not heated. As you move south from there, you can see the totals come up in Garfield County, where more of the precipitation likely fell as rain. The Jordan Airport ASOS also has a heated gauge and is therefore more representative of its area than the surrounding sites.

According to KRTV Meteorologist Erik Johnson, it was the second wettest day on record in April for Glasgow. 

The high wind warning ended Thursday night, and a winter weather advisory starts at 3 a.m. Friday,  in effect, until noon Saturday. 

Updated moisture details: officially, Glasgow received 1.40 inches of moisture on Thursday, a record for the date. That beat the old mark of .97, set in 1957. The 2.7 inches of snowfall recorded was also a record for the date. 

Preliminary Local Storm Report...Summary
National Weather Service Glasgow MT
1239 PM MDT Thu Apr 23 2026

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0700 AM     Blizzard         1 NE Glasgow            48.21N 106.63W
04/23/2026                   Valley             MT   Official NWS Obs 

            Visibility of 1/4 mile or less in blowing 
            snow. Wind speeds of 35-45 mph. Snowfall of 
            2.7 in. measured. Wet snow, compacting and 
            melting. 

0900 AM     Blizzard         6 NNE Glasgow           48.28N 106.56W
04/23/2026                   Valley             MT   Dept of Highways 

            Montana DOT website reported severe driving 
            conditions on MT-Highway 24 in Valley County 
            between Glasgow and Opheim. Additionally, at 
            9:15 AM DOT reported a semi-truck slide 
            resulting in blocked lanes of traffic. 

1045 AM     Blizzard         12 SSW Larslan          48.41N 106.26W
04/23/2026                   Valley             MT   NWS Employee     

            While traveling, an NWS employee experienced 
            white-out blizzard conditions between Nashua 
            and Larslan along state road 438 from 6:30 
            AM to 8:00 AM. Wind speeds from nearby 
            observations were sustained at 30 to 35 mph 
            and gusts were 35 to 45 mph. 

1100 AM     Blizzard         5 SSW Opheim            48.79N 106.43W
04/23/2026                   Valley             MT   CO-OP Observer   

            Co-op observer reported white-out blizzard 
            conditions from 2:30 AM to 11:00 AM local 
            time. Nearby wind speed observations were 
            sustained at 35-40 mph with gusts 
            consistently at 45 to 50 mph. Snowfall total 
            estimated at 6 in. Even after snowfall 
            ended, enough dry snow was present to 
            sustain ground blizzard conditions until 
            11:00 AM. 

1234 PM     Blizzard         9 NE Flowing Wells Rest 47.42N 106.03W
04/23/2026                   McCone             MT   Public           

            Public report at 20 W Circle of white-out 
            blizzard conditions. Wind speeds sustained 
            at 30 mph, gusting to 40 mph.