The National Weather Service is calling for an arctic system to enter the Missoula area on Friday, according to meteorologist Jeff Kitzmiller.

“We have some changes coming on Friday, it seems a bit of an arctic wants to come through,” said Kitzmiller. “Particularly from Missoula over to Butte, it looks like we might have that coming through the afternoon commute on Friday. It starts out a little bit warm and kind of wet, and then we drop those snow levels, so we could end up seeing some ice with some snow on the roads.”

Kitzmiller said there may not be much snow, but ice could be a problem.

“Right now, the transition looks like it will be Friday afternoon and evening,” he said. “We’ll start the day off fairly warm and then those east and north winds will come in and we’ll go back to snow. As for amounts, we have those pretty light right now, we’re not as confident about the amount of snow, but we’re a little more worried about what it might do to roads by making them slick.”

Slick roads will definitely be a factor in western Montana as high school and college football fans stream into Missoula and Hamilton on Saturday. The Grizzly Bobcat game will start at noon, and Kitzmiller is calling for temperatures in the low 30’s with strong, gusty winds coming into the stadium from the Hellgate Canyon.

Hamilton will play for the state Class ‘A’ championship at 1:00 p.m. at Broncs Field and

The Class ‘B’ state championship football game kicks off at Loyola’s Ram Field at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, as well.

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