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Fall lawn-raking better be finished by Sunday evening, because the National Weather Service predicts winter will show up on Monday.

And that first serious snowfall will be followed by a full arctic outbreak Tuesday that may send wind-chill temperatures below zero across much of western Montana.

The deep cold should last the rest of the week as a large cyclone churns across the southern Alaskan coast and pushes freezing air southward.

“This weekend is a great time to get stuff done, because it’s going to turn on a dime and not change for the foreseeable future,” NWS meteorologist Corby Dickerson said Friday. “We’re looking at a 40- to 60-degree temperature swing in four to five days. It’s been unseasonably warm for the last several weeks. This crashes it down to true winter conditions.”

After a weekend of sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s, northwestern Montana should start seeing rain turning to snow Sunday evening.

That snow should progress south at least as far as Missoula by Monday morning, just in time for the start of commutes to work and school. The Kalispell-Columbia Falls area could receive 2 to 4 inches, with about half that amount falling in the Missoula Valley.