Hey everyone, I'm just curious as to how the winters are going thus far for Montana and Wyoming? Hopefully mother nature and old man winter aren't being to hard on the big game. So far here in north central North Dakota its been fair. Just starting to get some snow built up now but its real cold. Like -35 cold and think the big game here will do fine otherwise but its too early to tell.
Winter Thus Far
- Thread starter Wapiti23
- Start date
Bambistew
Well-known member
Cold weather doesn't kill animals, crusty and/or deep snow, and wet conditions especially in late winter does.
Which is exactly what is happening in SW Montana right now. We just ended four days of rain with temps in the 40s. Hopefully it was not that warm up high. Now, with the colder nights in the teens freezing the compacted snow, I can walk across my property and not break through the crust. While throwing dummies for my dog this morning, I thought about this exact thing as his 80# weight did not break through the crust, but I bet a 600# bull probably would.
Hopefully it was warm enough to clear most the south facing slopes of all snow, allowing them to feed and move around. If not, a bad crust this early, if followed by lots more snow and bad cold, could thin out some of the deer/elk in this part of the state.
In a line from Billings to Helena, and north, it was all snow, and lots of it. A much better outcome than rain on top of deep snow like we had.
Art Vandeley
Well-known member
We've got a lot of snow in the northern part of the state. It has been cold enough that there is no crust to speak of...yet.
shoots-straight
Well-known member
We have valley inversions (FOG) with the upper wintering areas enjoying warm sunny weather. Most south facing slopes are void of snow in both upper Root areas. Couple of cold days and snow expected but so far a decent winter. The late winter weather is the most important.
opyff
New member
SW Wyoming got a bunch of snow over the holidays, a week of pretty cold temps and since the 1st it has been pretty nice sitting in this high pressure system. Went for a sled ride yesterday, although the snow in the foothills was hard as a rock, almost all of the ridge lines were blown off and open. Up high there was about 40 inches of powder with no base yet
ardrhi
Member
Its easy to find snowpack info. I frequently google search for "swe snotel basin Idaho" and look for a link to a pdf. This shows the average snowpack for the major basins across the state.
ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/id_swepctnormal_update.pdf
If you omit the word "basin" from you search it usually brings up a map with the specific snotel sites.
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/id_swepctnormal.pdf
You can get the same thing for most western states.
It still does help to ask the locals how critters are doing with a winter because the map can't tell you that even though southeast Idaho has above average snowpack, deer and elk are handling it well. Lower elevations have warmed up between storms so winter ranges have plenty of open ground. Basically we have almost ideal conditions so far - good snowpack up high to produce summer growth without so much that it has caused significant problems.
ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/id_swepctnormal_update.pdf
If you omit the word "basin" from you search it usually brings up a map with the specific snotel sites.
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/id_swepctnormal.pdf
You can get the same thing for most western states.
It still does help to ask the locals how critters are doing with a winter because the map can't tell you that even though southeast Idaho has above average snowpack, deer and elk are handling it well. Lower elevations have warmed up between storms so winter ranges have plenty of open ground. Basically we have almost ideal conditions so far - good snowpack up high to produce summer growth without so much that it has caused significant problems.
