September Snow in Continental U.S.

Here is a word you probably haven’t heard in a while…snow. Even though it is way too early to begin thinking about snow in Kentucky, portions of Montana may get an early-season snowfall tonight. A winter weather advisory has been issued for portions of northern Montana along the Canadian border.

This advisory is in effect from 3am-9am MST tomorrow as a strong cold front moves through tonight. Rain showers will fire along the cold front and change over to snow across the higher elevations overnight as cold air moves in. This advisory includes Glacier National Park and 1-3″ of snow is expected above 6000 feet with up to an inch at lower elevations.

Surprisingly enough, this is not even the first snow of the season in Glacier National Park. Just a week ago, a snowstorm dumped 1-4″ of snow across the higher elevations. September snow is not that rare here, this is a part of the country that has seen snow during every month of the year at some point. The park averages 0.1″ of snow during September and sees an average of 137.5″ of snowfall each year.

The National Park Service provides a network of webcams across the park which will be useful to track snowfall tonight and tomorrow.

If all this talk is getting you excited for our snow season, here are some statistics to keep in mind:
Bowling Green’s average (1932-present) date of:

First trace of snow:  December 3    

First measurable snow:  December 24 

First snowfall 4” or above:  January 23   

Bowling Green’s earliest snowfall on record occurred on October 20, 1913 when 1.0” fell, it’s safe to say we still have some time until we starting worrying about winter weather here.