Winter may have gotten off to a slow start in the Flathead Valley, but weather forecasters are predicting a potentially significant round of snowstorms hitting Western Montana beginning Thursday night.

In an online weather briefing released Wednesday morning, Missoula-based National Weather Service meteorologist Lance VandenBoogart said Northwest Montana will likely evade the heavier accumulation forecast farther south, but could expect 5 to 8 inches of snow in a 48-hour period.

“Thursday begins a four- to five-day period where many valleys are forecast to see accumulating snow each day,” VandenBoogart said. “This pattern, with a series of snow-making weather systems in close succession, is really rare, so we see this happening once every few years. Maybe the last time this happened was in 2012 or so.”

He noted that current forecasts have a low level of confidence for accumulation totals and timing, but the overall predictions carry the potential to deliver a historically significant cumulative snowfall.

Currently, the Weather Service expects a period of heavy snowfall hitting the Flathead Valley early Friday morning, with 3 to 4 inches of snow predicted in Kalispell and the surrounding area. The weather models anticipate a second round of snow dropping 2 to 4 inches Saturday morning through Sunday morning.

Beginning Sunday night, VandenBoogart said a “reinforcing push of Arctic air” could cause snowfall to ramp up substantially, with possible white-out conditions and several more inches of snow in the valleys.

He added that the Arctic air mass could create high winds leading to blowing snow and more acute white-out conditions.