Sure, the snow didn’t stick around for very long, and it was pretty much just coming at us horizontally – but it’s still cool to get over 10 inches of snow in late April!
The NWS has released the storm totals, and here’s the part about Great Falls:
Great Falls received just over 10 inches of snow, while some areas – including portions of the Little Belt Mountains – got as much as 48 inches of snow. The snowfall in Great Falls resulted in the fifth-snowiest April on record, with 23.8 inches reported for the month…And Great Falls’ nickname of the “Windy City” certainly held true; the daily wind speed average on Thursday was 29 miles per hour – the windiest April day since 1978. The strongest gust recorded in Great Falls during this week’s storm was 52 mph.
And for anyone wondering how unusual it is for a big snow during the last week of April – hey, the exact same thing happened last year at this time! And as for May snow – seem to recall it was Mother’s Day in 2003 (2004?) that we got about 8 inches of snow. And June – about 7 or 8 inches in both June of 2009 AND 2008!
The storm was unbelievable! I almost grafted apple trees last week because the weather had been so nice. Thankfully, I still didn’t trust April weather. Glad I didn’t! I was surprised at the difference in snow amounts between town and Gore Hill. Our road was drifted shut, but the roads were just wet in town.