The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bozeman reported Jan. 9 that early season snowfall helped boost Montana snowpack to near normal.

Typically by this time of year, Montana snowpack has accumulated to about 50 percent of its annual levels. But the 2014 water year is below normal west of the Continental Divide and long the Idaho border in the Bitterroot and Lower Clark Fork river basins, NRCS reports.

Locally, the snow-water content of snowpack in the Flathead River basin is 114 percent of average and 108 percent of last year’s average.

“Winter came with force in Montana, with snowfall starting as early as the last week of September, with continuing favorable storm patterns dropping snow during the late fall and into the beginning of the winter,” NRCS reported. “It is not uncommon to experience early snowfall in Montana; however, the abundance of autumn snowfall and cooler than normal temperatures experienced in October, November and December has helped retain snowpack in the mountains, which often melts out at low and mid elevations.”

NRCS’s forecast for April 1 through July 31 streamflows this year in the Flathead River basin is 102 percent of normal and 93 percent of last year. This forecast assumes near normal moisture and runoff conditions for January through July.