What a name! Ever heard of it? Probably not but it is a well-known name in the weather world.
Cut Bank is located in NW Montana not far east of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Even though the population is only 3,000 or so, we do get hourly reports 24 hours a day. I check it often in winter because Cut Bank is often the first weather station to feel the onslaught of those big invasions of bitter, bitter cold arctic air from Canada. Down in the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle, they used to call those a “Blue Norther.” (and I still miss the term,”Cold Wave”)
Cut Bank is on U.S. 2 and not far west of north-south I-15. The north end of I-15 is at Sweetgrass, Montana along the Alberta border. You can get on I-15 there and go all the way to the other end of I-15 at San Diego, passing through such places at Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
Back to Cut Bank. A cut in the nearby terrain is the reason for the name. While we are in that section of the good ole USA, we should mention Browning, west of Cut Bank, and near Glacier National Park. Weather history was made there in January, 1916, when the temperature nosedived 100 degrees in only 24 hours, from 44 above zero to a low of 56 below! Can you imagine?
One thing for sure, that would make James Spann wear a light coat!
And, maybe a hat!
