Northwest Montana is one of few bright spots in what is shaping up to be a dry year for Western states.

The monthly report from the Natural Resources Conservation Service shows the Flathead River Basin is at 72 percent of normal snowpack levels while the Kootenai River Basin is at 49 percent.

However, the agency predicted streamflows in the two drainages should be over 90 percent of average from April through July.

“The Flathead is one of the few basins that’s been hanging on, mostly because we did see abundant snowfall this year,” said Luke Zukiewicz, a hydrologist with the conservation service. “The high elevations are holding onto it, and we’ve seen above-average rain precipitation pretty much throughout the year. This past month has helped to keep the forecasts near normal to above-normal.”

Mountain snowpack declined 16 percent in the Flathead Basin and 11 percent in the Kootenai Basin during March, although precipitation was above average during the month.

According to Ray Nickless, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Missoula, Kalispell’s total precipitation for March was 1.66 inches, 34 percent above the average 1.09 inches. 

That helped to balance out the low-elevation melt that resulted from a significantly warmer March, which averaged 39.1 degrees, compared with a historical average of 35.4 degrees.

Freezing temperatures are still generally prevailing in the mountains, leaving high-elevation snowpack in good shape for the warmer months ahead.

“It’s tough for us living in the valley, where we’re looking around thinking that snow has got to be terrible, but it’s really the mid-to-upper elevations that drive our streamflows,” Zukiewicz said.

Within the Flathead River basin, the streamflow forecast is 92 percent of average. For the Kootenai, the flow forecast is 94 percent of the average. 

Zukeiwicz said that more normal streamflows feeding the Kootenai from Canada are helping overall flow predictions in that basin.

Statewide, anticipated streamflows are 79 percent of the norm, weighed down in large part by the Missouri River Basin east of the Divide, forecast to be 57 percent of normal flows.

“Compared to the rest of the West, Montana is in good shape, and even our neighbors just crossing the border into Idaho, snowpack drops off rapidly,” he said. “The Northwest states have been getting some precipitation, but in Washington and the West they got very little snow.”

Zukiewicz cautioned that the agency’s predictions are based on historical data and could see significant revisions depending on weather in the next months.

“It’s important to note the weather in Montana can change rapidly, as we all know,” he said. “Recently we’ve seen below-freezing temperatures at a lot of the lower elevations, so that accelerated snowmelt we were seeing has started to curtail a little bit.”

Statewide, the snowpack in Montana is 68 percent of normal — 67 percent west of the Continental Divide and 72 percent east of the Continental Divide.

That contrasts sharply with Washington state, where the winter snowpack recently set a new record low for April at 22 percent of normal, shattering the previous record of 33 percent set in 2005.

California snowpack also is at record low levels.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com