Avalanche danger heightens

Recent snowstorms have ramped up the avalanche danger here.

The avalanche danger is listed as "considerable" by the Glacier Country Avalanche Center and a storm earlier this week promises to add more snow load to already unstable snowpack.

The storm earlier this week 'should elevate" the avalanche danger, said Stan Bones of the Glacier Country Avalanche Center.

On Dec. 22 a skier triggered an avalanche while skiing out of bounds in the Hell Roaring Basin on Big Mountain.

Bones said that historically, now is the time of year for the valley's first avalanche fatality. Slides up to this point are fairly minor. But with an increasing snowpack, larger and more dangerous avalanches can occur. Last year at this time there were massive avalanches in area mountains. One slide in Glacier National Park took out several hundred feet of the Going-to-the-Sun Road as it ran from the crest of the Garden Wall nearly 4,000 vertical feet, almost reaching McDonald Creek.

Overall, 2009 was a topsy-turvy year for weather.

Timely summer rains kept fires at bay. Upwards of an inch of rain fell in early August in the valley, and temperatures stayed relatively cool.

The only fire of significance locally was the Baldy Fire south of Lakeside that scorched more than 200 acres.

The fire started Sept. 26 and was under control a few days later. All told, it burned about 226 acres. September was a dry month and saw just 0.14 inches of precipitation — more than an inch below normal.

Mid-October saw record-breaking cold when temperatures dropped well below zero for several days. While precipitation was about average, November was also a dry month, running about an inch below normal.

December precipitation was nearly normal, with 1.35 inches recorded at Glacier Park International Airport. That's about 0.3 inches below a normal year.

The dry fall has resulted in a slow start to snowpack accumulation. The Flathead River Basin snowpack is currently about 87 percent of average, though total precipitation is closer to normal — about 94 percent of average.

Lower elevation areas have seen rain rather than snow in December.

In Glacier Park, the West Flattop SNOTEL site has the snowpack at normal and Badger Pass is slightly above normal.