The so far very dry December will be turning white in the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Trent Smith said the first taste of snow will be small later Monday and into Tuesday morning, but heavier snow will arrive Tuesday night, especially in the mountains.

“We’ll have one weak cold front moving in later today bringing some snow to the higher terrain with maybe a couple of inches combined with a trace here in the valleys, and it may break us out of this cold snap and warm temperatures up,” said Smith. “We’ll have a secondary cold front that’s going to be coming through on Tuesday night into Wednesday, and we’re looking at up to a foot of snow on the Montana Idaho border.”

Smith said the heavy snow in the mountains will be accompanied by gusty winds.

“The valleys could pick up anywhere from one to five inches just depending on your location in western Montana,” he said. “Right now for Missoula proper it’s a rough one. Due to the wind factor we’re looking at between one to three inches of snow. We could have another weaker system coming through this weekend.”

Smith said the temperatures will warm into the upper 20’s to low 30’s, but freezing rain and black ice are not expected.

More From KMPT-AM