Cold, snow predicted for the weekend

If you love snow, you’ll love the weekend weather forecast.

The National Weather Service is predicting a cold, raw, weekend ahead, with upwards of two to three feet of snow in the higher terrain and even a few inches in the valleys.

West Glacier could see 4 to 8 inches of snow Saturday night into Sunday morning, while lower valleys like Hungry Horse could also see a couple of inches, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Nester said Monday.

“Higher elevations, two to three feet is very possible,” he said.

The weather, which has been fairly mild, though soggy, so far this fall, will take a dramatic turn starting Friday into Saturday.

A wave of cold air from the east will start out as rain — up to a half-inch and then transition to snow Saturday into Sunday. Highs will only be in the 30s and lows will dip into the 20s in some locations.

“This closed low is more like you see in the spring,” Nester said.

September has already been a wet month, though there hasn’t been much snow, even in the higher elevations.

So far this month there has been 2.3 inches of rain at Glacier Park International Airport, which is 1.24 inches above normal. For the water year, however, which measures precipitation from to Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, we’re just about average, at 16.79 inches. The normal year sees 16.67 inches.