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Mountain Precipitation Down for Third Straight Month

By Beacon Staff

GREAT FALLS – The Natural Resources and Conservation Service says Montana’s mountains have experienced a third straight month of below-average precipitation.

In a report released Thursday, the NRCS says precipitation in mountains west of the Continental Divide was 57 percent of average in January, and it was 60 percent of average in the east. The agency also predicts below-average stream flows in the spring due to the low precipitation and snowpack.

NRCS water supply specialist Roy Kaiser says moisture is worst in the Bitterroot and Clark Fork river basins, and best in the Smith, Judith and Musselshell river basins. He says the state is two-thirds through seasonal accumulation of snowpack, and a few big winter storms could improve conditions.