One of the driest, warmest winters Jefferson County and southwest Montana have seen in years has already forced some to go to great lengths to adapt.
In the wake of a very unwhite Christmas, nearly every Montana city has experienced record high temperatures this month, including a record-high of 56 in Helena last week and a balmy 62 degrees in Great Falls. A driver crossing Boulder Hill – or MacDonald Pass, west of Helena – in recent days would come across barely a dusting of the white stuff, even above 6000 feet.
“The unique part about this here is how warm it’s been,” said Eric Larson, a hydrologist who conducts snowpack studies for Montana’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. “We got a few rain-on-snow events even on some of the higher mountain elevations, even in December.”
