Snow hit southwest Montana early and hard this winter. That seemed brutal back in November — but it laid the foundation for a relatively healthy snowpack despite January’s dry spell.
As of Feb. 10, most of the county’s basins were right around normal for this time of the year. The Rocker Peak SNOTEL station, maintained by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, measured 37 inches of snow. Rocker’s snow water equivalent, which reflects how much water the snowpack actually contains, was just above the 20-year median for that site, which sits at an elevation of about 8,000 feet near a saddle north of Basin.
The Frohner Meadow station, located at 6,480 feet at the top of the Lump Gulch drainage northwest of Jefferson City, reported 23 inches of snow, with a snow water equivalent slightly under the 20-year median there. And the Tizer Basin station, located north of Elkhorn Peak at about 6,880 feet, reported 29 inches of snow; its snow water equivalent was exactly at the 20-year median for that day.
The USDA noted that most of southwest Montana received slightly less than normal January precipitation. “The storm which brought two to three feet of mountain snow in many locations during the last week of January really saved us. Without that storm, basin-wide snowpack percentages across much of Montana might have looked similar to last year at this time,” said Eric Larson, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) water supply specialist.
Snowpack percentages have generally dropped since December in basins that received below normal January precipitation, the USDA reported. River basins west of the Continental Divide saw a 20-30% decrease in their snowpack percentages, while Rocky Mountain Front basins saw a 30-35% decrease since Jan. 1.
“The good news is above normal snowfall during November and December provided enough of a buffer that the snowpack is still in good condition in most locations,” said Larson.
Indeed, this winter’s snowpack pattern around Jefferson County has been quite different from a year ago. In 2021-22, a very dry autumn and early winter left the Tizer Basin at around 40% of the median snow water equivalent until January, when heavier snows finally arrived. Frohner Meadow’s snowpack was at about 80% in early January, 2022, before returning to historical norms later in the winter.
