Montana's snowpack is best in the West

Karl Puckett
Great Falls Tribune
Heavy snowfall at year's end has been good for ski hills such as Showdown Ski Area and and also farmers and ranchers who rely on the water in that snowpack.

Montana went out with a bang in 2017 when it came to snowfall and now has the best snowpack in the West starting off the new water year, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

That assessment is based on the amount of water that’s contained in that newly fallen snow, said Lucas Zukiewicz, a water supply specialist with the NRCS, a division of U.S. Department of Agriculture, which monitors mountain snowfall and the water in it.

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“It’s been the most consistent snowfall across the western United States,” Zukiewicz said of Montana snow.

In the wake of the new snow, automated sites that collect snow information picked up an additional 2 to 7 inches of snow water equivalent over the past 10 days, Zukiewicz said.

Ice is jamming on the Gallatin River.

“That’s a pretty substantial storm for this time of year,” he said.

Prior to the stormy end of the year, snowpack on the Rocky Mountain Front was 68 percent of normal.

Now snowpack is 115 percent of normal on the Front.

The Milk River was 72 percent of normal.

Now the snow-water equivalent there is 93 percent of normal.

The Smith-Judith Musselshell basin is 133 percent of normal.

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Snowpack in some areas of southwestern and southcentral Montana are now as high as 147 and 159 percent of normal.

 

The Lincoln area received some of the heaviest snowfall amounts which have significantly improved snow water amounts in Montana's snowpack.

 

The late-year flurry of snow flurries illustrate how a storm or two can quickly take below-normal snowpack and put it at above normal, Zukiewicz said.

It’s a good start to the water year, Zukiewicz said, but he points out it is early in the season. The biggest snow months are still to come: March, April and May.

And the NRCS won't know until April 1 what water availability will be, Zukiewicz said.

“Really, in terms of our water supply for the whole year, it’s really going to come down to the next couple months, Zukiewicz said.

Eastern Oregon and the panhandle of Idaho also have great snowpack but Montana’s snow is the best based on the amount of water compared to normal, Zukiewicz said.

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“It’s always nice to say we have the best snow,” he said.

By comparison, the rest of the West is dry, he said.

Mountain snowpack is, in effect, the West’s reservoir, Zukiewicz said.

It’s captured and stored and then used to irrigate crops.

Significant snowfall fell across the state in the last week to 10 days.

Three miles north of St. Mary on the edge of Glacier National Park, 4 feet of additional snow accumulated, according to the National Weather Service in Great Falls.

Three miles west southwest of Lincoln, 3 feet of snow was recorded.

It wasn’t just in the mountains. A rancher who measures snow for the NRCS reported 15 inches in the valley in the Upper Blackfoot Valley, Zukiewicz said. “Valley snow also is important,” he said.

The snowfall accumulated between Dec. 23 through the end of the year, Zukiewicz said.