Above the valley floors, it’s been a heavy snow year. (There’s still plenty around our place.) . . . .

While snow at lower elevations around the Flathead Valley has melted, mountain snowpack remains well above average due to cool weather and continued precipitation, and the National Weather Service says the stage is set for some flooding in Western Montana.

That may come as no surprise to the folks at Whitefish Mountain Resort, which still has a whopping 151 inches of settled snow at the summit of Big Mountain.\

Resort spokeswoman Riley Polumbus said that measurement exceeds the highest measurements in recent years for early April. In 2011, the last big late snow year on the mountain, 144 inches was measured. In early April 2008, the snow depth was 140 inches at the summit.