More snow will likely come Thursday; Badger Pass SNOTEL site back online

A shot of cold air brought a couple of inches of fresh snow to Columbia Falls Sunday night through Tuesday and it could get worse before it gets better, the National Weather Service is saying.

Another round of storms is expected Thursday into the weekend. Thursday’s arctic surge should bring another shot of snow, with 10 inches or more in higher elevations like Marias Pass and 3 to 6 inches in the valleys.

On Monday, Glacier Park headquarters saw a fresh 4 inches of snow, with 27 inches still on the ground. Historically, the highest ever snowfall for April 2 at park headquarters is 7.5 inches in 1954, with 41 inches total on the ground. The average is 12 inches on the ground for April 2, Park spokeswoman Lauren Alley said.

This weekend, the weather is expected to transition to all rain in the valleys and could be heavy at times. On the plus side, no major flooding is expected, said Ryan Leach, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missoula.

The Flathead River Basin snowpack is currently at 139 percent of average, but some individual sites are even higher — Noisy Basin in the Jewel Basin is 150 percent of average.

One critical SNOTEL site was recently put back online.

The Badger Pass site, near Marias Pass, was destroyed by the Strawberry Fire last September.

During a brief weather window in February, staff from the Natural Resources Conservation Service were able to get a helicopter into the site and install a satellite telemetry system, data logger, snow depth sensor, and air temperature sensor.

Water users can now monitor Badger Pass conditions daily or hourly. Snow water equivalent is estimated for the site using densities from surrounding SNOTEL sites.

The direct link to the Badger Pass site is https://wcc.sc.egov.usda.gov/nwcc/site?sitenum=307