BOZEMAN – There’s not much snow in them thar hills.
The Natural Resources and Conservation Service says statewide mountain snowpack is 65 percent of average and very low streamflows are likely to occur this summer.
The NRCS says April 1 snowpack is as low as 50 percent in the basin that feeds the Sun, Teton and Marias rivers. The Lower Clark Fork and Bitterroot river basins are around 55 percent of average.
Streamflows in the Bitterroot, Lower Clark Fork, Jefferson, Sun, Teton and Marias rivers are forecast to be less than half of average. The forecasts assume near normal spring conditions.
Snowpack in the Smith, Judith and Musselshell river basin is 90 percent of average and the rivers are expected to run at about two-thirds of average through July 31.