Winter is here

After a relatively mild holiday season weather-wise, winter came to Sanders County this week, with more than 6 inches of snow reported in some areas. Road crews were busy clearing streets for residents as one business owner said they couldn't shovel fast enough on Thursday.

School has been canceled in Thompson Falls, Noxon and Trout Creek for Friday, Jan. 12. The Thompson Falls wrestling team will not be traveling to Choteau and the Blue Hawk basketball games in Eureka set for Saturday have been rescheduled.

Noxon School has canceled the basketball games scheduled for Thursday against Charlo.

As of 1 p.m. Thursday, Northern Lights reported that more than 1,300 customers were without power, including 126 in the Bull River area, 408 in Noxon and nearly 800 from west of Thompson Falls to Trout Creek.

The National Weather Service is predicting a 30% chance of additional snow on Friday before a bitter cold front moves in to western Montana. Temperatures are predicted to be below zero through Sunday, with a high of -5 Friday and Saturday and near 4 degrees on Sunday.

Northern Lights has these tips for a power outage on its website:

* Check your breakers or fuses to make sure the trouble is not in your electrical system

* If you have determined that your system is okay call our outage line as soon as possible

* Tune to the local radio station or check our website for updates

* Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed

* Stay away from downed power lines

* Do not try to assist emergency and utility crews

* Use extreme caution when cleaning up storm damage on your property

* Be safe!

If you are a Northern Lights customer, report outages to (866) 665-4837.

For NorthWestern Energy, report outages to (888) 467-2669.