Planning To Move To Montana? Check Out These 5 Winters First

With people constantly moving to Montana for the scenery, I decided to take this opportunity to help out-of-staters understand the reality of Montana winters—just so they are aware of what they are getting themselves into.

Montana has some brutal winters, and these are the top 5 that made history. These winters are still talked about to this day—at least by true Montanans, the ones that remember it and experienced it.

2017 HAVRE STORM

In 2017, Havre, MT had a record October snowfall of over 30 inches in one day. Although that was their first snowfall of that season, I can only imagine that trick or treating was not the same that year.

1916 BROWNING FREEZE

I want you to imagine this for a minute: it's a beautiful January day, 44 degrees, which is warm for that time of the year, and BAM—in a matter of 24 hours the temperature drops to -56 degrees. NEGATIVE 56 degrees Fahrenheit. That is a 100 degree change in temperature in one day. It's so cold that it makes history in the United States as the craziest, most dramatic change in temperature, ever.

2012 BUTTE BLIZZARD

In 2012, a random snow storm took over and pounded the Butte area. When this happens and you are on the road, you can't see and with roads becoming slick, it's hard to drive. This is for anyone, not just the inexperienced. This particular storm was the cause of 30 accidents on one section of I-90.

1889 COLD FRONT

There is a good chance that if you have lived in the midwest, you are used to colder temperatures, but when it lasts for days on end, it could make you second guess why you ever live here. (But then we remember all the great things Montana has to offer).

Back in 1889, from January 30th through February 4th, Montanans experienced severely cold temperatures. Billings, Bozeman, and Missoula all had days of record lows, while Wisdom, MT came in with a recorded low of -52 on the 3rd of February.

2017 GREAT FALLS SNOW DUMP

In 2017, Great Falls broke a previous record that was set in 1954 with a recorded snowfall of 60 inches between February 3rd-7th.

There is nowhere in Montana that you will be able to avoid the cold, the snow, or the wind. So if you are coming here thinking, "Oh, this will be pretty with a little snow on the mountains," you may be coming to the wrong state.

By the way, we are predicted to get snow in just a few days, so let the fun begin!

cc: onlyinyourstate