The big dump canceled schools Tuesday throughout the Bitterroot and in all the Missoula County Public Schools. It also helped push up the snowpack in mountain ranges. In the Missoula and Bitterroot basins, the snowpack is 103 percent of normal, she said.

"(Almost) everybody is above normal. That's the good part," Allegretto said.

She said the exception is the Kootenai and Cabinet Mountain regions, which sit at 86 percent.

"They keep missing these big snow events, unfortunately," Allegretto said.

Elsewhere in the region, Montanans were shoveling too, albeit less than their neighbors in the Bitterroot.

Butte received 12 inches of snow, Seeley Lake counted 9 inches, and Philipsburg and Anaconda received anywhere from 8 to 10 inches, Allegretto said.

Within the last 36 hours, she said the snow didn't start coming down north of Interstate 90 until later. Kalispell measured 4 inches and Thompson Falls 7 inches.

Keep the sleds ready for more flakes later this week.

"We are expecting snow to start (Wednesday) morning and last through the day, but we honestly haven't even had a chance to look because we've been engulfed," Allegretto said.