Flathead's warm winter poised to continue

Northwest Montana finished 2017 under several inches of snow and bitterly cold air. So far, 2018 has been gentler to the region.

National Weather Service data for Kalispell showed an average high of 33.5, and low of 22.1 last month. That’s well above values from January 2017, when the average high was 23.5 and the low was 3.6.

“It’s just been kind of a warmer than normal winter,” said Genki Kino, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula.

On average, Kalispell sees a high of 28.9 and a low of 13.8 in January. The warmest winter on record came in 1953, with a low of 27 and high of 37.

Since late December, Arctic air masses have generally stayed away from the Flathead, Kino said. “I think that’s why we’ve been above normal. We usually get at least a few of those systems...but we really haven’t seen much this month.”

“The colder air has been off to our east this year.”

Even so, this year’s La Niña is keeping the mountains white. The Flathead Basin’s snowpack is currently 123 percent of the 30-year median, measured by the amount of water it would generate if it instantly melted. “It doesn’t correlate very well with our temperatures,” Kino explained, but “La Niña has correlated very well” with above-average snowpacks.

The Climate Prediction Center’s 14-day outlook shows Western Montana’s temperatures staying close to normal, as temperatures to the west climb higher and states farther east plunge lower.

“It’s just going to be an active next few days,” Kino predicts, “with mainly mountain pass snow and valley rain.”

“Right now we are not looking at any Arctic systems moving in anytime soon.”

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