September snow
Chris Peterson photo A white-tailed deer seems a bit befuddled by an early snowstorm in Glacier Saturday.
Hungry Horse News
Glacier National Park and the surrounding area was whacked with a snowstorm over the weekend, which dropped as much as 24 inches of snow in the high country.
Sperry Chalet reported 20 inches of snow on the ground Sunday, said Lanny Luding, whose family runs the chalets. But the ground underneath was warm and the temperatures were coming back up and the snow level was about 15 inches by Monday.
He didn't have a report for Granite Park, but he did note there were sightings of grizzlies wandering around in the snow looking a bit lost.
The storm, while it was predicted, came in fast. Last Thursday the temperatures were about 80 in the Park. By Friday night they were falling fast and by Saturday, higher elevations were seeing nothing but snow.
The Going-to-the-Sun Road on the west side was closed all the way down to Avalanche Creek and Jackson Glacier Overlook on the east side by Saturday and it was snowing at lower elevation roads as well. The Camas Road saw a heavy, wet snow on Saturday and Sunday, though the snow wasn't sticking to the pavement.
The Sun Road reopened on the east side to Logan Pass by Tuesday. It reopened on the west side Wednesday.
Park officials said the snow had at least 100 trees down along the highway from Avalanche up to the Loop.
The snow didn't close the Camas Road or the Inside North Fork Road.
Up the North Fork near Polebridge there was about four inches of snow on the ground.
All told, lower elevations had about four inches of snow that stuck on the ground, though there was no snow in the lower Flathead Valley, in places like Columbia Falls.
The Snotel site at West Flattop Mountain recorded about three inches of total precipitation over the weekend, which amounted to about 24 inches of snow.
The East Flattop Snotel site recorded about 2 inches of precipitation over the weekend.
A Snotel site is a remote site that automatically gauges snow and rainfall in high elevations.
Both of the above-mentioned sites are located in the Park.
The Park did not report any lost or stranded backcountry hikers because of the storm. Early season storms aren't uncommon in the Park's history.
At Glacier Park International Airport, Saturday saw 1.14 inches of rain, which was a new record. Sunday saw .52 inches more. We're still about a half inch of rain below normal for the water year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
Temperatures are expected to moderate, with highs in the 70s Thursday (today) and about 70 Friday, before another wave of rain comes in.