What’s the weather like? It’s about every kind of weather combination found in the northern hemisphere short of tornado’s and hurricanes. It’s about going from 70° and sunshine to a blizzard in minutes and dressing from shorts up to winter storm shells and everything in between. It’s spring time in Montana.
River flows are going up and probably won’t be coming down for awhile, say late June? The good news is that the lakes are mostly open and the fish are hungry. The only caveat being that you have to survive the squalls in order to get the job done.
I’m expanding a bit on this report. On the last report I added a blip about NOAA 8-10 day forecast for the weather. That seemed to be of interest to readers so I will keep it in. By and large they seem to be pretty accurate.
MONTANA SNOTEL Snow Water Equivalent Update Graph
As of FRIDAY: APRIL 24 , 2009
| Basin | Snow Water Equivalent Percent of Average |
| KOOTENAI RIVER BASIN |  88% |
| FLATHEAD RIVER BASIN | 86% |
| UPPER CLARK FORK RIVER BASIN |  103% |
| BITTERROOT RIVER BASIN | 97% |
| LOWER CLARK FORK RIVER BASIN | 89% |
| JEFFERSON RIVER BASIN | 105% |
| MADISON RIVER BASIN | 101% |
| GALLATIN RIVER BASIN | 106% |
| MISSOURI HEADWATERS | 103% |
| HEADWATERS MISSOURI MAINSTEM | 106% |
| SMITH, JUDITH, AND MUSSELSHELL RIVER BASINS | 105% |
| SUN, TETON AND MARIAS RIVER BASINS | 83% |
| MISSOURI MAINSTEM RIVER BASIN | 96% |
| ST MARY AND MILK RIVER BASINS |  65% |
| UPPER YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN | 105% |
| WIND RIVER BASIN (WYOMING) | 99% |
| SHOSHONE RIVER BASIN (WYOMING) | 91% |
| BIGHORN RIVER BASIN (WYOMING) | 92% |
| TONGUE RIVER BASIN (WYOMING) | 93% |
| POWDER RIVER BASIN (WYOMING) | 96% |
| LOWER YELLOWSTONE RIVER BASIN | 94% |
| Legend: | <70% |
70-90% |
91-110% |
 111-130% |
 >130% |
NOAA’s 8-14 day forecast looks like more of the same- cooler and wetter than average. We had about a week of decent temperatures with little precipitation but on Wednesday we headed back into the cooler. Some areas of western and southwestern Montana are still recording measurable snowfall.
Basically it’s looking like a ditto of last spring so far which probably means that at least the early summer will probably be much like last year also.
8-14 day Temperature
8-14 day precipitation
For a long term look, here’s the NOAA May-June-July temperature forecast.
And finally, May-June-July precipitation.
