They're not there to tell motorists the wrong temperature. But that's about all large illuminated signs along U.S. Highway 2 have been doing since they were put up a couple of weeks ago.

The signs are supposed to warn travelers from here to Browning about avalanche danger, said MDT spokeswoman Charity Watt-Levis.

The large signs aren't particularly attractive and seem contrary to some of MDT's past policies, which frowned upon large signs near the highway along Glacier National Park.

"It's a matter of weighing public safety and aesthetics," Watt-Levis said last week.

Right now, however, motorists have noted to the Hungry Horse News that the signs are showing the wrong temperature.

Watt-Levis said they're not designed to tell folks what the temperature is anyway. It's the contractor testing the units, she said.

The signs cost $89,000 apiece and another $120,000 each to install, she said. The messages can be changed almost immediately under emergency conditions, she said, but if the power goes out, so do the signs.

They have no back-up power supply.

MDT has used portable signs in the past, but the messages on the portable units have to be changed manually. These signs can be changed from a remote location.

Locally the signs are along Highway 2 at the intersection of Highway 206, at West Glacier near the Glacier Park entrance, in Essex, East Glacier and in Browning.