You've already got it, and with the National Weather Service forecasting a 90 percent chance of snow on Christmas Eve and a 70 percent chance on Christmas Day, you're likely to get more of it.
Another Pacific weather system, similar to the one that moved into western Montana on Sunday night and Monday, appears headed this way Wednesday night and Thursday.
It's great news for skiers and ski resorts anxious to open 100 percent of their runs, and bad news for holiday travelers.
The latter face snowpacked and icy highways and treacherous mountain passes, plus potential delays, disruptions and cancellations of airline flights and bus and train travel.
Plane, train and bus service is suffering primarily because of unusually brutal winter weather conditions on the West Coast.
“It's winter as usual for us,” said Greg Phillips, deputy director at Missoula International Airport. “We've had no problem staying open.”
But flight delays and cancellations in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Spokane have affected people flying in and out of Missoula, as well as delays at hubs such as Salt Lake City, Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Western Montanans with plane reservations out of Spokane face the double whammy of bad roads coupled with potential flight disruptions - eight were canceled Monday morning alone, seven of them to Seattle or Portland, and one to Phoenix.
And Missoula passengers on Compass Airlines, which feeds into Northwest Airlines' system, have also encountered problems.
Compass' Embraer 175 jets do not have special approach approval into Missoula, as do other aircraft, from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Like the other airlines serving western Montana whose problems, if any, mostly stemmed from the weather in Seattle, Portland and Spokane, local Greyhound and Amtrak passengers faced similar difficulties on westbound routes.
Greyhound has canceled all its bus routes out of Spokane, Seattle and Portland “until further notice,” according to spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh, because of poor driving conditions.
Amtrak, meantime, shut down its Amtrak Cascades trains between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eugene, Ore., because of infrastructure issues related to the winter weather. While all other Amtrak passenger service is still operating in the Pacific Northwest, travel is subject to “lengthy delays” according to the rail service's Web site.
Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air canceled all their flights to and from Seattle and Portland on Sunday after running low on de-icing fluid. Some flights resumed Monday - although Horizon still canceled 100 flights out of Sea-Tac Monday - and while more de-icing fluid was en route, some was coming by rail, which posed its own problems.
Sea-Tac spokesman Paul McElroy told the Seattle Times that train tracks were covered in ice, and crews were chipping away at it by hand to free up trains.
With all that, the storm's effect on Montana almost seemed like a day in the sun by comparison.
Of the 20 crashes reported in Missoula since roads turned bad last Friday, half happened on the first day that conditions worsened, according to Missoula Police Sgt. Greg Amundsen.
“People are starting to slow down, plan their trips for the conditions, and are getting used to snow again,” Amundsen said. Likewise, Missoula County Sheriff Mike McMeekin said that while his officers were dealing with lots of accidents, most were either one-vehicle affairs that ended up with a driver going in the ditch, or crashes where braking vehicles slid through stop signs or stop lights and collided with another car or truck.
“What we've seen is all to be expected,” McMeekin said. “I'm a happy camper right now, but getting through the next week and a half will be the big thing.”
The next week and a half, of course, includes not only the likelihood of more snow, but more holiday parties and New Year's Eve. The sheriff urged all revelers to make plans now to use taxicabs or have designated drivers on hand to transport them over the snow and ice.
McMeekin also cautioned motorists to take care in the wake of those who don't.
On a personal trip over Lookout Pass on Sunday, the sheriff said he was passed by a speeding semi on the curving portion of Interstate 90 west of St. Regis where the posted speed limit is 45 mph.
“I've never had that happen in the summer,” McMeekin said. “There are always some drivers out there who make you wonder how they survive.”
Snowfall amounts for the 24-hour period ending Monday morning varied across western Montana - 7 inches at the top of Evaro Hill, nearly 6 inches in Polson, 5 in Hamilton, 3 to 4 1/2 in Missoula, 3 in Bigfork, and less than 2 inches in the Kalispell area and Whitefish and Columbia Falls.
With the snowfall petering off north of Flathead Lake, Whitefish Mountain reported 65 percent of its runs open with 16 inches of snow at its base and 34 at the summit.
Montana Snowbowl was 33 percent open as of Monday morning, according to its Web site, with 17 inches at the base and 36 inches on top. Lookout Pass Ski Area reported 37 inches at its base and 54 on top, with three of four lifts operating.
Blacktail Mountain at Lakeside said it plans to open 100 percent of its runs on Christmas Eve. Its snow report did not include the latest snowfall.
With more snow forecast, the National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for virtually all of western Montana in the coming days.
“It's too early for warnings or advisories,” Whitmore said, “but our map may look a little more colorful soon.”
You can access local weather reports at www.wrh.noaa.gov/mso/.
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