From the Hungry Horse News comes word that conditions are just too soggy for Red Meadow Road to open on schedule . . .
The Flathead National Forest will keep Red Meadow Road, Forest Road No. 114, about 40 miles north of Columbia Falls, closed to protect the road surface past the usual June 1 opening date. The gate on the road, about two miles off the North Fork Road, will be closed until road surface conditions improve.
The National Weather Service has backed off a bit on its flood forecast, now expecting area rivers to mostly just approach flood stage. Locally, the flood watch released this morning indicates the “North Fork and Middle Fork of the Flathead river will see increased rises in flows… and will have the potential to reach flood stage through midweek.”
Here’s the write-up from today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
Flathead County officials are keeping an eye on area rivers, streams and lakes for the next couple of days, following higher weekend temperatures and a forecast for more rain in the next few days.
Scott Sampey, Flathead County director of emergency services, said all area rivers are expected to “get near or barely nip flood stage” on Wednesday. By the end of the week, river levels are expected to drop.
The National Weather Service in Missoula issued a flood watch for Flathead County on Monday afternoon. A flood watch means there is potential for flooding…
The weather service’s river level gauges indicate peak flows are expected at all county rivers mid-afternoon Wednesday…
From the National Weather Service . . .
Statement as of 10:40 AM MDT on June 06, 2011
… Flood Watch in effect through Tuesday afternoon…
The National Weather Service in Missoula has issued a
* Flood Watch for a portion of northwest Montana… including the following County… Flathead.
* Until further notice
* snowmelt will combine with excessive rainfall amounts through Tuesday evening. This will result in sharp increases in rivers and streams.
* All stems of the Flathead rivers… including the North Fork… Middle Fork… and main Stem will have the potential to reach flood stage by midweek.
Precautionary/preparedness actions…
A Flood Watch means there is a potential for flooding based on current forecasts.
You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible flood warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop.
From today’s Missoulian . . .
What do you get when you add two warm weekend days, an expected 80-degree high temperature for Monday, and a rainstorm that is expected to move into western Montana late Monday and stay through Wednesday?
A good chance that the Clark Fork, Bitterroot and Flathead rivers will be above flood stage by the middle to later half of the work week, said Corby Dickerson, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Missoula.
“One of the things that is really challenging in advance of these storms is to fully gauge the impact of the heating and precipitation on our flood models,” Dickerson said. “As far as actual numbers and how high the rivers will get there are still a lot of questions.”
“However, given the scenario and time of year, we are shaping up to see a substantial rise in the rivers across Western Montana.”
Oops! Missed this item posted last Friday to the Hungry Horse News site . . .
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating the wounding of a grizzly bear near the intersection of the Red Meadow Creek Road and the North Fork Road north of Polebridge.
FWP wardens and biologists investigated the scene on June 2 and tracked the grizzly but were unable to locate it. A trap was set in the area for the bear.
Residents, hikers and other outdoor recreationists are advised to use caution in the Polebridge area until more is learned about the situation. The investigation is ongoing.
The National Weather Service tweaked their forecast river levels for the North Fork Flathead River. They now show it cresting just above flood stage for about a day at the Canadian border in the Tuesday-Wednesday time-frame. It’s hard to know what will happen at Polebridge — the gauge seems to be broken again — but the river should at least be pretty close to bank-full by mid-week.
Use the links on the “Flood Information” page to monitor the situation.
From today’s Daily Inter Lake . . .
The National Weather Service is holding to its forecast for higher temperatures this weekend and for Western Montana rivers and streams to rise sharply in the early part of next week.
Temperatures are expected to reach the lower 70s today and the upper 70s or lowers 80s by Sunday and Monday.
It will be “the warmest temperatures we’ve certainly seen this year,” meteorologist Bruce Bauck said. “It’s going to take a couple of days for this warm weather to start melting this snow … We should see the rivers starting to jump up pretty good in the early part of the week.”…
Across the Flathead River Basin, the snow water content at higher-elevation sites is 226 percent of normal….
Related news: Balmy weekend ahead for Glacier
Here’s a pretty good overview of the potential flood situation in our corner of the the U.S. from today’s Flathead Beacon . . .
The giant concrete dams of the Pacific Northwest are overflowing with water. Wyoming has deployed National Guard troops to pile up sandbags. A federal official compares the impending situation to a bucking bull ready to storm out of his chute.
States across the West are bracing for major flooding in the coming weeks once a record mountain snowpack starts melting and sending water gushing into rivers, streams and low-lying communities. The catalyst will be warmer temperatures forecast for the next week that could set off a rapid thaw.
Related article more specific to Montana: Schweitzer wants presidential disaster declaration
From an AP article posted to the Flathead Beacon . . .
Under pressure from Congress, the Obama administration is backing away from a plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a memo Wednesday that his agency will not designate any of those public lands as “wild lands.” Instead Salazar said officials will work with members of Congress to develop recommendations for managing millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West. A copy of the memo was obtained by The Associated Press.
Salazar’s decision reverses an order issued in December to restore eligibility for wilderness protection to millions of acres of public lands. That policy overturned a Bush-era approach that opened some Western lands to commercial development.
Here’s another sign of spring: ticks.
From the Daily Inter Lake . . .
The Flathead City-County Health Department has issued a warning for people to take precautions to avoid tick bites.
Ticks become most active in spring and the early summer. South-facing slopes where snow melts first and wildlife winter ranges have the highest concentration of ticks.
Montana’s primary tick, the Rocky Mountain hard-bodied wood tick, carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. A soft-bodied tick associated with relapsing fever recently has been found in Montana. Black-legged ticks that cause Lyme Disease are not known to occur in Montana.