Flathead Avalanche Center Begins Issuing Daily Advisories
Local avalanche experts launched the 2024-2025 forecasting season today with daily advisories through April
By Maggie Dresser
As winter begins in northwest Montana, the Flathead Avalanche Center (FAC) today began issuing daily advisories that provide information on the latest avalanche conditions in the 1-million-acre forecast region that covers the Swan, Whitefish and Flathead ranges along with Glacier National Park.
The advisories provide daily avalanche forecasts that include danger ratings and snowpack observations with commentary from local avalanche specialists. Updates are available by 7 a.m. at www.flatheadavalanche.org and will continue through April.
Daily advisories begin following an atmospheric river that flowed through the region in mid-November, leading to an accumulation of above-average snowfall.
Whitefish Mountain Resort currently has a snow depth of 40 inches on Big Mountain while Noisy Basin in the Swan Range has a depth of 47 inches. Flattop Mountain in Glacier National Park sits at 36 inches.
Current snow water equivalent levels (SWE) in the Flathead River Basin are at 116% of normal based on the median percentage between 1991 and 2020, as of Dec. 3, while the Kootenai Basin is at 132% and the Sun-Teton-Marias Basin is at 73%.
A high-pressure system will continue until Thursday with freezing levels rising to 5,000 feet with strong temperature inversions resulting in valley fog and clear skies at high elevations. A cold front is expected to push through northwest Montana on Saturday night into Sunday, dropping snow levels to 4,000 feet and bringing snow to valley floors.
Forecasters encourage the public to submit field observations, which remain a valuable tool that helps staff form more accurate and detailed advisories.
The FAC became a Type 1 Avalanche Center at the start of the 2014-2015 season, utilizing resources from its nonprofit partner, Friends of the Flathead Avalanche Center (FOFAC) along with the Flathead National Forest and Glacier Park.
Flathead Avalanche offers avalanche courses throughout the winter, which includes avalanche awareness talks, rescue clinics, youth education and motorized courses.
Andy’s Crafthouse in Bigfork will host an avalanche awareness class on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
FAC Director Blase Reardon leads a team of four full-time forecasters, down slightly from last year’s staff of five full-time forecasters amid a $750 million U.S. Forest Service (USFS) budget shortfall.
While the FAC will continue to produce daily advisories, other centers that are more reliant on USFS funding like the West Central Montana Avalanche Center based in Missoula will be forced to scale back its advisories along with the geographic scope, as reported by the Montana Free Press.
