Hotter temps should lead to another round of high river flows

After a rash of odd, winter weather in June, the National Weather Service is forecasting a return to normal temperatures and a certain rise in river flows.

Northwest Montana was blitzed by a surprise snowstorm that dumped more than 1 to 2 feet in the mountains Tuesday and Wednesday. Mountain snowpack has reached 193 percent of average in the Flathead Basin and 160 percent of average in the Kootenai Basin for this time of year.

"There's still an awful lot of snow in the mountains to melt and that will bring our streams up," National Weather Service hydrologist Ray Nickless said Wednesday.

Temperatures are expected to climb into the 70s by this weekend, with predictable effects on the snowpack.

"There's plenty of moisture up in the mountains and we will see some of that coming into the rivers this weekend as things warm up," Nickless said.

Rivers in the Flathead and Kootenai basins are expected to rise but not exceed flood stage next week.

However, if it gets warmer than expected, with temperatures rising into the 80s, streamflow forecasts could change, Nickless said.

"Whether we are going to reach that flood stage again remains to be seen, but at this point, I don't think they will," he said.

The recent storm dropped 20 inches of snow on the Noisy Basin automated measuring site on the Swan Mountain Range, where there now is a 90-inch snowpack with 34 inches of snow water equivalent.

Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park received 15 inches of snow. There is a 105-inch snowpack on Flattop, with 45 inches of snow water equivalent.

Valleys in Northwest Montana also received snow ranging from one inch up to nine inches in some locations, such as the Jette Hill area near Polson, Felsch said.

Felsch said snowfall was to continue above 5,000 feet Wednesday night, peaking at around midnight and then tapering off by this morning.

Then things will warm up and dry out going into the weekend.

"We'll just have to keep an eye on these river rises as we get into this weekend and into next week," Nickless said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com