Flood threats may be past

As lingering snowpack continues to dwindle away in the mountains of Northwest Montana, it may finally be time for flood watchers to breathe a sigh of relief, two Flathead County officials and a meteorologist say.

“Our best guess is we’ve made it past” the major threat of flooding, Sheriff Chuck Curry said. “I think we’ve skirted the big danger.”

No catastrophic flooding occurred in Flathead County, the sheriff said, unlike other parts of Montana. And with snow and river levels declining, that threat is diminishing, he said.

However, continued groundwater flooding is likely, Curry and Flathead County Office of Emergency Services Director Scott Sampey said.

Plenty of snow remains in area mountains, Sampey said, and as it continues to melt for the next several weeks, “that water has to come up some place,” he said.

Curry and Sampey are pleased that the county got the weather breaks it did in the last two months, which averted serious flooding.

“Things worked out well for us weather-wise and temperature-wise,” Curry said. “We had a big potential for flooding in this part of the state, but it didn’t materialize. And that’s not all bad.”

According to Meteorologist Bob Nester of the National Weather Service office in Missoula, “We had a great potential for flooding and we had a great deal of flooding across Western Montana.

 “But the thing that kind of saved us this season from having even more damaging floods was the cold weather from April through June.”

Typically, temperatures rise quickly in May and June, he said. However, this year the northern Rocky Mountains registered the coldest spring since 1975. The temperature exceeded 70 degrees on just nine days this spring, the lowest number on record since 1899. The average temperature for Kalispell this spring was 47 degrees, the second-lowest on record. The average of 46.9 degrees, set in 1955, ranks as the coolest spring in Kalispell.

“We never really had a time period in May or June when we had a five or six-day warm-up of temperatures into the 80s,” Nester said. “We had a day here or there of 80s, but then temperatures would drop back to below normal.”

That pattern slowed snowmelt and kept rivers mostly within their banks.

Likewise, while there were spring rains, those rains were cold, he said. If warm rain had hit the Flathead this spring, flooding probably would have occurred. 

The threat of warm rain in the future still could cause some river flooding, Nester said.

“There’s still a lot of snow up there and even though rivers are below flood stage, if by chance we have a warm rain, that could trigger floods.”

However, no significant rainfall is in the forecast.

The weather forecast for the next few days calls for lower temperatures. Today’s high in Kalispell is forecast at 64, with a low of 39 and west winds between 13 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph today and 25 mph tonight.

Saturday’s high is predicted to be 69, with a low of 43 and winds continuing between 7 and 11 mph. Sunday’s temperature should warm to a high of 77 and a low of 48, but the winds go away.

All rivers in the valley were running well below flood levels Thursday morning.

The Flathead River at Columbia Falls measured 12 feet Thursday; flood stage is 14 feet. The Middle Fork at West Glacier stood at 6.7 feet, well below its 10-foot flood stage.

Although it was bank full and spreading water to nearby low areas, the Whitefish River at Kalispell was at 7.4 feet. Its flood stage is 8.5 feet.

At 5.6 feet, the Stillwater River at Lawrence Park in Kalispell was well below its 7.5-foot flood stage.

The Swan River near Bigfork measured 5.8 feet; flood stage is 6.5 feet. The Yaak River near Troy measured 5.57 feet; flood stage is 8 feet. And the Kootenai River below Libby Dam was at 21.6 feet. Flood stage is 27.5 feet.

Warm weather during the past week reduced much of the high-elevation snowpack, according to snow-gauge data from the National Resources Conservation Service.

At Noisy Basin on the Swan Range, the snow water equivalent on Thursday was 31.7 inches, down from 44.7 inches on July 1. The 64 inches of snow on the ground had decreased from 86 inches a week ago.

At Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park, the snow water equivalent was 37.6 inches Thursday, down from 44 inches a week ago. Likewise, the snow depth had dropped to 68 inches, down from 86 a week ago.

And at Moss Peak in the MIssion Mountains, the 42.9 inches of snow water equivalent recorded Thursday had dropped from 53.4 inches a week earlier. Thursday’s reading showed 77 inches of snow on the ground, down from 96 inches a week ago.

County officials continue to maintain sand and bags around the county, Sampey said, in the event of future flooding.

People who live around Echo Lake have been taking plenty of material from the Bigfork stockpile, he said, to protect property from water in that lake, which has an abundance of water.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or sridenour@dailyinterlake.com.