Record-low snowpacks endure despite midwinter storms

Mid-January and early February storms brought some much-needed snow to the region, but a third of Montana’s basins continued to post record-low snowpacks as of Feb. 7, a situation likely to produce low summer streamflows and uncomfortably dry forests heading into fire season.

The deficit is most pronounced east of the Continental Divide, according to data from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Sun-Teton-Marias, Upper Missouri, Gallatin, Upper Yellowstone and Powder basins all saw lower-than-average precipitation during the month of January and snowpacks in those basins remain at record low levels. 

Even normal precipitation for each of the next three months would leave many locations in Montana with a record-low snowpack by late April, according to the NRCS’s Feb. 1 monthly outlook report.

A bright spot in the agency’s summary? Two northwestern Montana basins, Flathead and Kootenai, pulled in enough moisture from well-positioned storms last month to bring them close to, or even above, typical January precipitation levels. Still, those storms weren’t enough to bring snowpacks in either basin up to typical levels for this point in the winter.

The widespread lack of snow is a wrench in the works for businesses that are reliant on winter snow or summer streamflows. 

Last week organizers canceled a nearly four-decades-old central Montana dog sled race out of consideration for the safety of mushers and their dogs. Firefighters, irrigators, dam operators and tourism purveyors reliant on the state’s rivers and lakes are bracing for a dry, difficult summer, as well.