Snowpack declines during dry February

An unusually warm, dry February put a dent in the mountain snowpack in Northwest Montana.

Snowpack as a percentage of average declined 9 percent for both the Flathead and Kootenai river basins, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

The Kootenai currently has 60 percent of normal snowpack levels. Snowpack is 88 percent of normal in the Flathead drainage.

Statewide, snowpack is 91 percent of average.

“Montana is in good shape snowpack-wise compared to most of the West this water year,” water supply specialist Lucas Zukiewicz said in a news release Friday.

Snowfall totals this winter for the Flathead Valley have been above average, with the weather station at the Glacier Park International Airport registering 59.4 inches of snow, compared with an average of 41.5 inches. Much of that snow fell in January.

February, however, had an average daily temperature of 31.9 degrees, or 4.8 degrees above normal, and total snowfall of 2.5 inches, well below the February average of 10.4 inches.

Luke Robinson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula, said last month was certainly warmer and drier than average, but not unprecedented.

“Since the year 2000 we’ve had five years with an average temperature above 30 degrees,” he said. “In 2013 the average temperature was 32.1 degrees and the total snowfall was 1.5 inches.”

The Flathead Valley also basked in an unusual amount of sunshine, with 18 days in February classified as “partly cloudy to clear.” Robinson said he didn’t have an average for that statistic, but said it was well above the norm.

Assuming precipitation levels normalize for next four months, the Conservation Service’s April-July streamflow forecast predicts flows in the Kootenai River Basin would be 11 percent below average and 1 percent below average in the Flathead River Basin.

“There are still two to three months left for snowpack to accumulate and the future snowfall, or lack thereof, will have an impact on the streamflows this spring,” Zukiewicz said. “It is not too late to make improvements before snowmelt, but Old Man Winter better make his appearance again sooner than later.”

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