Blizzard Hits Missoula Hard, Century Old Record May be Shattered

Overnight, on the last day of the month, Missoula received a substantial amount of snow and is extremely close to breaking the all-time February record.

The record to beat is 43.3 inches from1936, and the books go back more than a century.

"The all-time February snowfall record goes back to 1893 and we still need about six inches to hit that record," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Luke Robinson. We probably won't reach it, we're only forecasting an additional three to five inches for the rest of the day."

This blizzard is expected to bring strong winds with it too.

"As we go throughout the day the winds should dramatically increase around noon, gusting about 50 miles per hour, and continue overnight."

Cars were frequently getting stuck in snow banks and berms during the morning commute.

There were quite a few slide-offs during the night, several of them resulting in DUIs," said Missoula County Deputy Bill Burt at around 5:00 a.m. "One of the biggest problems was the plow trucks not being able to keep up with the drifting. The interstate has 6 to 8 inches of snow and the on and off ramps have anywhere from two to three feet of snow on them. We're having cars getting stuck on the on and off ramps themselves. If people don't have to go anywhere I recommend they stay home."

More than twenty vehicles, including police cars and a semi-truck had managed to get stuck in the snow near the on and off ramps before five o’clock this morning.