The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

My Grandfather Stuart featured himself as quite the weather man. He spent his life talking to his friends about what was going to happen in the South Mountain View Community of Havre, Montana regarding weather.

The problem is that he was usually wrong. However one time he did correctly predict a terrible blizzard. From that day on he was known as Blizzard Stuart.

The only weather tidbit I ever got from my father was that he said when there are sun dogs around the sun, it was going to be very cold for a very long time.

My only problem is that I am never sure when I am looking at a sun dog and when I am not.

Well, most would agree that we have had enough rough weather to last the rest of the winter. I had heard from one so called expert that this terrible weather was going to last in the Big Sandy area until March.

So, I called the National Weather Service in Great Falls and found out some good news if better, meaning warmer weather is good for you.

Starting when the next "Mountaineer" comes out on December 21 through the end of December conditions are going to be much closer to normal. By the time you are reading these words the terrible storm that has lasted all of December should have broken and that break should last through the end of December and into January.

"Looking more normal" were the words of the forecaster. That means normal high is 32 and average low is 9. Normal precipitation for that time frame in Big Sandy is .18 inches.

The January and February long range forecast is looking like temperatures will be around normal and precipitation should be slightly above normal.

January average high is 32 and the average low is 10. Average precipitation is 0.48 inches.

February the average high is 36 and the low is 14. Precipitation is 0.29 inches.

It is said by old timers mostly that hope springs eternal. If that long range prediction is on target from the National Weather Service, there is hope for those feeding cattle, those starting calving and the rest of us just trying to get by in it as well as we can!