Originally published in the 4/6/18 print edition of the Yellowstone County News.
HUNTLEY — Weary of winter? Hang on — another front is heading this way.
With the winter of 2017-2018 already the third snowiest in the county, the National Weather Service on Wednesday issued a winter weather advisory Wednesday morning calling for up to nearly a foot of snow in some areas.
The advisory, which began at midnight Thursday and was expected to continue through noon Friday, called for snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches with “localized amounts up to 11 inches.”
Monday brought another round of snow to Yellowstone County communities. The National Weather Service reported 9 inches of snow in Billings and 6 inches in Huntley, Shepherd and Pompeys Pillar.
Snow and wind have snarled traffic in the past few days, with dozens of crashes reported. US 87 North between Billings and Roundup was closed Monday, and Interstate 90 was closed at the Montana-Wyoming border Monday night, although both were open at presstime Wednesday.
Callie Cooley, an agriculture extension agent with Yellowstone County’s Montana State University Extension office, said Wednesday that prolonged cold and snow cover have plagued ranchers on two fronts: Cold weather is hard on new calves, and with little grass ready for grazing, “hay is kind of hard to come by.”
Some of the forage problems can be traced to last summer, when drought limited grass production and wildfires destroyed rangeland, especially in Garfield and Petroleum counties, she said.
“On a typical year you’d at least be able to start thinking about feeding less hay,” Cooley said. This year, ranchers in Yellowstone County will likely be hauling hay for quite some time, she said.
Recent thaws have helped some, Cooley said, but at the same time the warming weather created ... Read full story at newsstands or by subscribing online here.
