El Nino weather years make Montanans nervous, because we sit on the geographic fence that means it could be fine for winter moisture, but it could also be way too dry to keep us skiing powder all winter and fishing cold water all summer. We never really know until it's all said and done in the late spring how the weather gods have treated us, but a warm and dry February this year made it feel a lot like last winter's weak showing. Fortunately, March has brought us some of the late season snowfall we were hoping for!
Bridger Bowl got 10 inches overnight, and Big Sky Resort is reporting 6-8 inches of their own today. Smaller ski areas around the state also reported fresh snow today, and the forecast for this week is more on the way. All that adds up to a snowpack map that looks like this:
We like all that green, and while it would be nice to have more low and middle elevation snowpack to work with, an average spring rain season should carry us through this year. Our neighbors to the West (Washington, Oregon and California), have fared much better this winter, so hopefully they will keep their wildfire smoke to themselves this summer as well.
Let's keep it coming ol' Jetstream, we need some soaker days in the weeks ahead.
