Tag Archives: flooding

Montana snowpack above average; streamflows expected to be double last year

Flood Information, News,

Here are some up-to-date numbers on snowpack and expected stream runoff from today’s Missoulian . . .

Snowpack across the state of Montana remains above average, and spring runoff flows should be nearly twice what they were last spring.

Snowpack numbers statewide show 120 percent of average, and a whopping 185 percent of last year’s paltry snowpack . . .

Columbia River drainages – Kootenai, Flathead, Clark Fork and Bitterroot – range from 107 percent of average snowpack to a whopping 129 percent in the Flathead drainage.

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Western Montana snowpack runoff expected to be strong in May and June

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Looks like mud season is well under way, but flooding will likely hold off until May . . .

Western Montana snowpacks should hang onto their meltwater through most of April, but May and June could see some impressive runoff.

“We haven’t seen this kind of snow since ’97 in some of those drainages,” National Weather Service hydrologist Ray Nickless said during a conference call Thursday.

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Larry Wilson: Snow piling up on the North Fork

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This week, Larry Wilson talks about the higher than normal snowpack on the North Fork and the possible consequences when it starts to thaw . . .

I doubt if anyone on the North Fork is unhappy to see the end of February 2011. In the last two weeks nearly 36 inches of snow fell on the Trail Creek area. This was on top of nearly two feet of settled snowpack.

Before that — all in February — we had two shots of minus 20 degrees as well as two shots of thawing temperatures with heavy rain. Not unheard of in past winters, but a real challenge if you want to go to town.

Folks who plow their lane just plain ran out of room to pile snow and had to contact neighbors with bigger plows or with bigger snowblowers. Thank goodness for Mike Edy, Tom Franchini, Denis Moris and Larry Crane who combined to keep Trail Creek Road and private lanes open with their tractor snowblowers.

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Rivers up but flooding unlikely

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It looks like the snowpack is melting off in an orderly fashion this year.

From yesterday’s online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .

Despite slower-than-usual runoff, officials say Flathead Lake is on pace to reach full pool by mid-June. The one thing that can push that back – and did, just last year – is the threat of flooding.

The National Weather Service, however, say flood risks look low this year. Snowpack levels are lower, and the warm-and-cool trends of the past few weeks have delivered a more relaxed release this spring compared to last year’s dramatic runoff.

Read the entire article . . .