It will take a lot of snow to rebound snowpack

It will take a significant turn in the weather to make up for lost ground in the Flathead River basin snowpack, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service said last week.

While the past couple of weeks have been very winter-like and the wintry pattern is expected to continue this week, there still hasn’t been that much snow this winter.

River basins in the northwest region of the state typically experience their “wettest” months of the year from early November through the end of January. Below normal snow totals in these areas for this date make recovery to “normal” snowpack conditions before runoff begins less likely.

“For example, the Flathead River basin would need to receive around 135 percent of normal snowfall between now and when the snowpack reaches peak accumulation, which typically occurs sometime in April,” said Lucas Zukiewicz, NRCS hydrologist for Montana. “While that’s not impossible, it would certainly take a major pattern shift from what we’ve seen so far this winter.”

Since November, overall snowfall has been below average and well below what the Flathead saw last year.

Currently the Flathead River Basin is 86 percent of average snow water equivalent.

Places like Many Glacier are quite dry, at just 76 percent of average. Overall precipitation, which includes rain, is also below average for the basin at 88 percent.

Snowpack does not determine the severity of the summer fire season, but it does have an impact of streamflows and irrigation. It’s generally what fills area lakes and reservoirs.