Snow piles up in February

As February draws to a close, Northwest Montana remains in cold storage.

The Flathead Valley’s snowpack, measured by the amount of water it would generate if melted, is 141 percent of normal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Snowpack Telemetry sensor network.

Kalispell logged 25.6 inches of snowfall in February – below the record of 30.7 inches set in February 1936, but well above the month’s average of 7.9 inches. Snowfall so far this season in Kalispell is at 78.1 inches, above the average of 44.8 for the end of February.

“This winter is one that we have considered as a La Niña winter,” said Dan Zumple, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula. “That typically favors snowfall for the northern Rockies, and that’s what we’ve seen.”

According to a map shared by the National Weather Service, the Flathead Valley generally has 18 to 24 inches of snow on the ground. Residents in the north valley around Whitefish and Columbia Falls report about 3 feet of snow on the ground. Residents toward Kila west of Kalispell also report about 36 inches on the ground.

The West Glacier area has about 36 to 48 inches of settled snow, according to the Weather Service, and Polson has 12 to 18 inches of snow.

Those with a stake in deep powder are pleased with the big winter.

“The consistency of our snowfall this season has been incredible,” noted Whitefish Mountain Resort’s snow report Tuesday morning.

In the 58 days since Jan. 1, the resort has received at least 1 inch of new snow on 44 of those days, the report noted. The resort officially surpassed 300 inches of snowfall on Feb. 24, and current stands at 330 inches on the season.

The settled base at the summit of Big Mountain sits at 149 inches, or about 12.5 feet. That is the deepest known base depth to date in ski area history.

To hit that snow, skiers have needed to brave sub-zero temperatures some days. The region has faced what Zumple called “a much colder pattern than what we typically have for the latter half of February,” one that strikes about once every 25 years.

The National Weather Service projects that a warm front will bring some relief in coming days, raising valley temperatures into the upper 30s and low 40s. But its seven-day forecast shows temperatures dropping below the freezing point early next week, and the climate outlook for March shows temperatures below normal and precipitation above normal through the next month.

This means, Zumple said, that “it doesn’t look like any time soon we’ll be starting to melt out.”

Reporter Patrick Reilly can be reached at preilly@dailyinterlake.com, or at 758-4407.