The National Weather Service is holding to its forecast for higher temperatures this weekend and for Western Montana rivers and streams to rise sharply in the early part of next week.

Temperatures are expected to reach the lower 70s today and the upper 70s or lowers 80s by Sunday and Monday.

It will be “the warmest temperatures we’ve certainly seen this year,” meteorologist Bruce Bauck said. “It’s going to take a couple of days for this warm weather to start melting this snow ... We should see the rivers starting to jump up pretty good in the early part of the week.”

Another wet weather system, similar to the one that passed over the region this week, is expected by Tuesday, but it will not be as cold, Bauck said.

The last system delivered significant moisture.

Since Wednesday, the Noisy Basin automated snow measuring site on the Swan Range received an additional 3.6 inches of precipitation, increasing its record snow-water content to 73 inches of water.

Noisy Basin still has 143 inches of snow.

Across the Flathead River Basin, the snow water content at higher-elevation sites is 226 percent of normal.

Whitefish got 1.59 inches and Bigfork received 2.04 inches of precipitation from the latest storm.

“We’ve added more snow to the record snowpack. Not good news,” Bauck said.

“The worst-case scenario” for flooding, he said, would involve a full week of very warm weather followed by a significant rain system. But that’s not in the current forecast.