reported for April. Nearly all ….

reported for April. Nearly all gages in the southwest, central, and southcentral portions of the state had below normal to well below normal streamflow this past month. “Current streamflow forecasts for the May through July time period reflect improved snowpack and precipitation conditions,” said Larson. In locations such as the Rocky Mountain Front and river basins west of the Continental Divide, the snowpack remains above normal, has yet to begin melting at the upper elevations, and consequently streamflows are forecasted to be near to above normal. Forecasts for southwest Montana, the mainstem of the Missouri, and the Yellowstone are looking much less grim than last month but remain below normal for May to July. There are still areas of concern such as the Shields and Musselshell rivers, which are forecast to be in the 40 percent to 55 percent of normal range for that period.

“As appealing as warm, sunny summer weather sounds, the best-case scenario over the next couple months is continued cool weather and more precipitation in locations that did not reach their typical peak snowpack levels,” said Larson. Many low elevation SNOTEL sites are currently melted out and typical melt out dates reach as far out as late June at higher elevations. Continued cool, cloudy weather would assist in holding onto to the snow longer and ultimately provide water later into the typically drier summer months.

A full report of conditions on May 1 can be found in the monthly Water Supply Outlook Report available on the Montana Snow Survey website. In addition, real-time snow survey data can be found at www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov under Snow Survey.