Besides the usual North Fork mud and potholes, springtime in Northwest Montana is also flood season — sometimes a minor nuisance, sometimes a major problem. This page contains links to flood-related information, including river levels, snowpack information and forecasts.

Current and forecast river levels, North Fork Flathead River – Provided by the National Weather Service, this page displays a handy series of graphs showing current and forecast river gauge data, including water level, and flow rates. There are two automated gauges on the North Fork Flathead: at the Canadian border and at Columbia Falls.

Northern Rockies Flooding page – The National Weather Service office in Missoula constructed a sort of one-stop information page for all Northern Rockies flood-related information. Here’s the official write-up . . .

This past winter the Northern Rockies experienced significant snowfall with many mountain observations hitting record values. This snow has been steadily melting this past May and will continue into June producing flooding conditions throughout the Northern Rockies. This web page was developed to pull all hydrology products into one location. Click on the tabs… to observe the river and stream gauges within each county that is serviced by the National Weather Service in Missoula, Montana.

National Weather Service, Missoula – This is the best general starting point for snowpack, precipitation and river level information and forecasts, including flood watches and warnings. Items of general interest linked from this page include:

• The hydrologic outlook (river and stream forecast),
• flood watches and
• flood warnings.

USGS real-time river gauge data, North Fork Flathead River – The U.S. Geological Survey operates the river gauges at the Canadian border and near Columbia Falls. This is the place to go to see real-time data on river levels and flow rates. There’s also a link to subscribe to email alerts.

Montana Snow Depth and Snow Accumulation – WeatherStreet.com has a map-based web page that tracks snow depth and snow accumulation values for Montana. It also has the most recent SNOTEL snow depth reports.

Flathead County Office of Emergency Services – In the event of major flooding, these folks will be responsible, in conjunction with federal and state agencies, for managing and coordinating the response. Presently, the page includes contact data, as well as links to informational material.