Weather honeymoon will end this weekend

The weather honeymoon will end by the middle of the weekend, as cold, wet weather returns to the Flathead Valley Saturday night into Sunday, with snow in the higher terrain by Sunday night, the National Weather Service is saying.

Meteorologist Leann Allegretto said the rain isn’t going to be as heavy as expected in Glacier National Park, where up to 2 inches of rain was first forecast.

Now forecasters are expecting a more showery pattern, though rain could be heavy at times.

Small streams in particular could rise quickly, she noted. Seeley Lake could even see a few thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon.

Once the front rolls through, snow levels should drop and places like east Glacier Park could see three to four inches of fresh powder. The cool, wet pattern should stick around through Tuesday, with a warming and drying trend from Wednesday on.

The Flathead River Basin snowpack is currently 166 percent of average, but some low elevation sites are well above that because they still have snow on the ground. Apgar, for example, still had roughly a foot of snow on the level in wooded areas just a couple of days ago, but it was rapidly melting as temperatures rose into the 70s in Glacier.

The Flathead Valley saw its first string of warm days this week for the entire spring, as temperatures rose into the 70s for the past few days.