No snow
Two Medicine Lake is free of ice, and the north shore, shown here, would typically have 30 to 40 feet of snow on this slope this time of year.
Hungry Horse News
Green tufts of beargrass poked through crusty snow, and the sun shone warm as Glacier Park wilderness manager Kyle Johnson skied to the snow survey course near Marias Pass Friday.
When he started plunging his hollow metal pole into the snowpack, the results confirmed what he already knew. The snow was really shallow.
The average depth of the snow was 8.5 inches, 38.5 inches lower than a year ago. The thin layer of snow was wet and dense, equal to 2.65 inches of water. But that's far lower than the 1971-2000 snow water equivalent average for this date of 11.7 inches.
Johnson said these conditions would not be unusual in April.
"It's pretty unique," he said. "I don't know if I've ever seen it any drier than this."
And that's coming from a man who has worked year-round in the park since 1990 and was born and raised in Columbia Falls.
Snow levels in the rest of the Flathead River basin are also very low. According to the state Natural Resources Conservation Service on Feb. 1, the snowpack was 82 percent of normal. The snow water equivalent is even lower, a mere 63 percent of average.
At Noisy Basin near the crest of the Swan Range the snowpack was 84 percent of normal. The snow water equivalent there was 73 percent of average.
At Emery Creek, south of Hungry Horse, the snowpack was near normal at 99 percent of average. But the snow water equivalent was only 47 percent of normal.
The situation is even worse east of the divide. At Many Glacier the snow water equivalent was 1.2 inches, just 11 percent of normal.
The lack of snow has had recreational impacts. Last week folks could ride a bicycle or hike to Two Medicine Lake on the east side. Ditto for Many Glacier, where the road was reported pretty much open to the campground for hikers and bikers. In Two Medicine, the north shore trail was largely free of snow and areas where drifts often reach 30 to 40 feet were bare. The lake was unfrozen. On the west side conditions are icy beyond the gate on the Going-to-the-Sun Road past Lake McDonald Lodge and cross country skiing park wide is generally lousy unless to get way up high.
In the North Fork, the Inside Road is muddy and icy. It's not really good for biking, but you can hike to Bowman Lake. The only place locally where the cross country skiing is holding its own is in the Middle Fork, where the snowpack is shaded on the north slopes along U.S. Highway 2.
Johnson said the impact of a low snowpack is significant. It affects, among others, farmers who count on runoff to irrigate crops and raft guides who use high water levels to thrill boaters.
He did point out that snowpack does not have a significant influence on forest fires. He said spring and summer rains are much more important for preventing fires than winter snow.
And even though current conditions are dramatic, Johnson said it's too early to panic.
"It could turn around awful quick," he said. "We've got a lot of months to make it up."