Fall snow in Western Montana

The "indian summer" we've been having this last month appears to have snapped in Western Montana. Looking at a few of the webcams on the passes, snow is falling this morning. Wooot.

Local news is saying: If El Nino reaches moderate strength - as expected, temperature and precipitation effects over the United States should strengthen in late fall and winter.

That would mean near normal precipitation, but below normal temperatures, through October in western Montana - followed by above average wintertime temperatures and drier forecasts as El Nino took over.

And according to the National Weather Service, the summer of 2009 was a record-setter.

Western Montana accounted for 10 daily records from June through August, six of them in the maximum rainfall category. Kalispell accounted for three of the rainfall records.

The new marks, starting in June, included:

July 27, Missoula, record rainfall of 0.6 inches (old record, 0.39, 1927)
Aug. 8, Missoula, record rainfall of 2.03 inches (old record, 0.44, 1999)
Aug. 14, Missoula, record low high temperature of 64 (old record, 66,1978)