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.
