After several sub-zero nights ice is forming on western Montana rivers. These photos are of the Flathead River about a hundred miles downstream from Glacier National Park. By the coming weekend, ice will cover this part of the river from bank to bank.
Montana Outdoors 
Wow! Pretty incredible photos!
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Comment by Mother Hen — January 3, 2017 @ 9:18 pm
That part of the river is pretty interesting to see when it gets this cold.
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Comment by montucky — January 3, 2017 @ 10:33 pm
It looks beautiful!
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Comment by Mother Hen — January 4, 2017 @ 5:47 pm
It seems especially so in winter.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 8:05 pm
Those are fantastic photos. I can feel the cold!
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — January 3, 2017 @ 9:30 pm
This is turning into the coldest winter we’ve had in ten to fifteen years.
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Comment by montucky — January 3, 2017 @ 10:35 pm
I didn’t want to click Like on that! Cold here too. -4, feels like -7. That’s cold for the west coast.
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — January 3, 2017 @ 11:33 pm
They are saying that it will get down to -21F tomorrow night. The coldest I remember here was in 1997 at -33.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 12:00 am
Oooh! That’s c-c-c-cold!
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Comment by wordsfromanneli — January 4, 2017 @ 9:55 pm
It’s amazing how cold it can get and how quickly it gets down there!
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 10:00 pm
Every photo is captivating, but I was most taken with the last one. The layer of almost-turquoise blue just under the snow in the lower right is so pretty. It reminds me of the glaciers I saw in Alaska.
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Comment by shoreacres — January 3, 2017 @ 9:34 pm
That shows the thickness of the ice when it crashed into the shore and started piling up. We are expecting night time lows in the teens or more below zero for the next four nights. If that happens, ice cakes like those in the last photo will be stacked up all the way across the river.
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Comment by montucky — January 3, 2017 @ 10:42 pm
Now………I feel nice and cool and can turning the air-conditioning off 🙂
That last image looks like there are large panes of broken glass. How interesting.
Any chance of some more images closer to the ‘broken glass’ (without falling in of course) 🙂
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Comment by Vicki — January 3, 2017 @ 11:12 pm
That “broken glass” is some large cakes of ice (about 4 inches thick) that formed miles upstream in sections of the river where the current was slow and smooth. They break loose and the current carries them downstream to this area where the river narrows and they pile up. Today I could hear the sounds as the pieces rammed together and slid past each other making crashes and high-pitched squeals; a very noisy process. I plan to return there in a few days and photograph the huge piles of ice that will accumulate by then (and I will be sure to get some close-ups of the ice cakes and some measurements of their thickness).
Tonight the temperature is supposed to get down to -10F (-23C) and tomorrow night -21F (-29C). That should make a considerable amount of new ice.
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Comment by montucky — January 3, 2017 @ 11:28 pm
Wow, that’s something a lot of us will never see. Can’t wait to see the ice cakes when you return there.
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Comment by Candace — January 3, 2017 @ 11:30 pm
It’s quite a sight, even for those who live here. It has always fascinated me. I’m looking forward to seeing those ice cakes pile up too. This seems like the other side of the world from the Valley of the Sun, but it’s beautiful too when you are prepared for it and understand it.
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Comment by montucky — January 3, 2017 @ 11:52 pm
Very fine. The last one especially, the way it reminds me of the Similkameen. Luminous.
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Comment by Harold Rhenisch — January 3, 2017 @ 11:36 pm
There is a deep and angular beauty to the cold country, isn’t there!
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 12:05 am
Awesome winter photos. I do love them. Here in Helsinki it has been “warm” period, but yesterday it was cold and heavy snowfall.
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Comment by Sartenada — January 4, 2017 @ 12:48 am
It was quite warm here until a few weeks ago, then turned very cold. It hasn’t been this cold here for many years.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 8:41 am
Oooh that looks chilly! But so very beautiful!
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Comment by Jo Woolf — January 4, 2017 @ 9:30 am
I’m sure there is much more ice on the river this morning after a very cold night. The air is crisp.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 9:43 am
Beautiful photos. I love the tones … we’re having a cold winter here, as well.
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Comment by teresaevangeline — January 4, 2017 @ 9:32 am
Yes, I’ve seen weather reports on the news from your area. This it the fourth wave of Arctic air here this winter, and by Sunday it will start warming to more normal levels.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 9:52 am
The lower Flathead and the Clark’s Fork in your area are some of my favorites places.
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Comment by Ron Mangels — January 4, 2017 @ 10:02 am
Mine too, Ron. There’s such a wide variety of scenery there and always something of beauty.
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Comment by montucky — January 4, 2017 @ 11:07 am
gorgeous photographs! Each one makes me want to get out and explore. I am up too late, could not sleep, it is -20F at the moment. I believe the 4th deep cold spell this season….. wow!
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Comment by Tammie — January 5, 2017 @ 1:09 am
My, you have really been getting the cold this go-around! It is only -10 here at the moment.
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Comment by montucky — January 5, 2017 @ 1:18 am
Oh it sure looks cold! And very beautiful …
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Comment by Julie@frogpondfarm — January 6, 2017 @ 1:21 pm
It is both. Among other things about it I think we like the wildness and the rawness of nature.
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Comment by montucky — January 6, 2017 @ 1:59 pm