Snowpack still below average

It may have been a snowy week in the Flathead and Glacier National Park, but the snowpack in the mountains is still below average for this time of year.

The snow water equivalent, which is the amount of water in the snowpack, is just 88 percent of average for the Flathead River Basin at this time of year, according to remote station SNOTEL data. SNOTEL stands for snow telemetry data.

SNOTEL sites west of the divide are still slightly below average after last week’s big dumps. The West Flattop Mountain site in Glacier National Park is 93 percent of average and the Noisy Basin site in the Jewel Basin is 99 percent of average.

But places like Many Glacier are just 71 percent of average and Badger Pass, south of Marias Pass is just 86 percent of average. Part of the deficit is that early December precipitation fell as rain.

West Flattop, for example, is 117 percent of average for the water year to date because early December storms brought rain. Many Glacier is 109 percent of average in total precipitation because of rainfall as well.

West Flattop has seen 11.4 inches of liquid precipitation (or the equivalent in snow) since Dec. 1. The snow depth was 27 inches Dec.1 and is now 67 inches. The past 10 days have seen about 17 inches of snow.

Overall, however, the area is still in a drought. Normal precipitation for the year at Kalispell Regional Airport is 16.79 inches, while this year it’s seen just 11.53 inches. December has been quite wet, however, with 2.32 inches of precipitation, which is .96 inches above normal.

The recent snows have also ramped up the avalanche danger in area mountain ranges to considerable.