The Flathead River is beginning to cause some minor flooding problems, but there is plenty of potential for the river to reach even higher flows in the weeks to come.

So far, the runoff from the substantial mountain snowpack has been orderly, according to Ray Nickless, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula.

“We’re melting off nice and gradually,” Nickless said. “We get these warm weather periods and then it cools off. We’re gradually eating away at the snowpack. Having said that, there’s still a lot of snow up there.”

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Wednesday that rising flows on the Flathead River prompted the emergency closure of two fishing access sites.

Getting to sites at Kokanee Bend site near Columbia Falls and on the east side of the Old Steel Bridge near Kalispell requires crossing flood water.

At the Old Steel Bridge site, a fishing pier is partially underwater. At Kokanee Bend, the road access and boat ramp have flooded. The closures will continue until flood conditions subside.

The National Weather Service is projecting the Flathead River to rise almost two more feet by Saturday. Then flows are expected to decline  by the beginning of next week.

The main river as measured at Columbia Falls is forecast to reach flood stage of 13 feet this weekend.

Other area rivers are rising but are not expected to reach flood stage soon. The Middle Fork of the Flathead River at West Glacier, for example, is expected to rise to 8.14 feet on Sunday; flood stage is 10 feet.

Nickless said there is potential for more peaks in river flows, but it’s difficult to predict when the highest flows may arrive because of the prevalence of low-pressure weather systems at this time of year that can bring rain.

“I don’t like to say we’ve seen the peak until we get to the time of year when we get out of these low-pressure systems and that comes around June 20,” he said.

While there has been significant mid-elevation snow melt, there still is plenty of snow at high elevations.

For example, Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park still has a snowpack containing 53 inches of water. Noisy Basin east of the Flathead Valley has 48 inches of water remaining in the snowpack.

Overall, mountain snowpack is 40 percent higher than normal for this time of year.

Nickless said Northwest Montana rivers will continue to have high flows for the next few weeks.

“The rivers aren’t going to be coming down,” he said. “We’ve just got too much snow left to melt.”

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