Seeley-Swan takes weather in stride

By Gwyneth Hyndman

The Seeley-Swan area was dealt a winter weather warning last Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, along with much of western Montana, as road crews, law enforcement and local schools braced for the abrupt - though not entirely unwelcome - change of seasons.

“It’s been a pretty steady snowfall,” said Missoula County Public Schools (MCPS) Communications Specialist Tyler Christensen.

While last week’s winter weather also prompted MCPS to cancel all after-school athletics and activities in most of the county, Seeley-Swan High School Principal Shawn Holmes said this wasn’t the case for the Seeley-Swan area and luckily there hadn’t been transportation delays locally.

For Seeley-Swan, it was business as usual, as schools sent out the reminders to families that were common for this time of year: dress in snow-appropriate clothes and accompany kids out to the bus stops so they aren’t waiting too long in cold weather for their bus.

Early Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, the U.S. National Weather Service Missoula Montana was reporting snow falling across the region with icy roads becoming slick. The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office alerted travelers to severe driving conditions from heavy snow on I-90 just outside Missoula, and multiple non-injury slide-offs were reported through the day across the county.

By Wednesday afternoon, Missoula County Sheriff Sergeant Robert “Bob” Parcell said that from his house in the Condon area, it was looking like about two inches on the ground, with a temperature high of about 16 degrees that day.

“It’s snowing really good right now - a really fine, heavy snow,” he said, adding that it was about an average amount for this time of year and would be a welcome change for hunters in the area who had endured rain for much of opening weekend for the general season two weeks before.

Parcell also offered the general cautionary advice for travelers as winter descended on the roads: “Be prepared. Have safety gear, chains and emergency supplies as well as a shovel and emergency flares,” he said, adding that drivers - especially those who weren’t accustomed to driving in snow - needed to slow down and be courteous to others on the road.

 

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