Snowpack in the Northern Rockies is lifeblood of the rivers we all love to fish, and it’s trivially easy to track snowpack these days. While those living up north are thrilled to see winter’s icy grip loosen a bit this past week, folks whose fun and fortunes depend on healthy river flows know that the next few months are critical for polishing off the snowpack build to sustain the upcoming warm months of summer and early fall.
There’s a nifty tracking tool that might be new to you, imaged above – the NRCS has an interactive tracking too here, the link will open it preset to look at SWE in MT and WY. You can toggle it to look at a variety of data using the legend to the right.
The classic report looking at SWE for the Western US as of this morning is below, pretty damn well matching up with the climate forecasts tied to the ENSO cycle from last fall.
During my last years in practice in Kalispell, we had a fascinating nurse working for us who had spent several decades working for the Forest Service in the Flathead. She reminded me every year that the late spring snows and rains, at least in the Flathead zone up north, were the most critical for snowpack development and the moisture content of the forest entering the summer fire season. That said, don’t stop the Montana snow dances just yet.
