Mountain snowpack growing

After this past weekend storm, the mountain snowpack continues to grow. The SNOTEL site at West Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park recorded 47 inches of snow on the ground — 16 inches of snow fell there over the weekend.

There’s even more snow to the south. The Noisy Basin SNOTEL site recorded 53 inches of snow as of Monday and 19 inches of snow falling over the weekend.

While the region saw snow, the bitterly cold air that was forecasted never materialized. Sunday saw sunny skies in the afternoon, which melted much of snow in lower elevations like Columbia Falls.

Currently the snowpack in the Flathead River basin is 178 percent of average for this date.

This week, the weather will start out wet Monday and Tuesday with rain, but cooler drier weather is expected by Wednesday, with highs in the high 20s to lower 30s and sunny.