It’s a thirst-quenching Thursday out there as another warm and wet storm soaks the Flathead Valley, with up to 18 inches of snow forecast to fall in the high country and you guessed it – rain at low elevations. But it’s a fitting way to close out the final week at Whitefish Mountain Resort (WMR) with a familiar theme that has defined northwest Montana’s record-breaking winter as spring fever takes hold.

I’d be more impressed with record snowfall, but instead we got record heat with Libby and West Glacier ranking No. 1 as having their respective warmest winters on record, while Kalispell barely missed the podium, ranking No. 4 since 1899.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in its Northern Rockies recap called the 2025-2026 season a “winter for the history books” with an unusual La Niña that brought “anything but typical” conditions.

While La Niña was originally in the forecast this fall, NWS officials said the ocean and atmosphere phased into the weather pattern early and while it usually represents a cooler and wetter winter – there is a caveat. These characteristics occur in only 66% of all La Niñas and is only true for the mountains while valleys are “less straightforward.”

I’m Maggie Dresser, here to break down northwest Montana’s unusual weather with a juicy Daily Roundup.

Let’s start in the far northwest corner of the state where data has been collected at the Libby Dam since 1986. As the warmest winter on record over the last 40 years, Libby’s average temperature this season was 33.7 degrees Fahrenheit – 4.7 degrees warmer than average.

Daily high and low temperature records were also smashed on multiple occasions throughout the winter, including on Dec. 17 when the low dropped to only 41 degrees before heating up to 57 degrees the same day.

Despite only receiving 8.5 inches of snow at the dam throughout the entire winter – a far cry from the record 48.6 inches during the winter of 2007-2008 – it was still the sixth wettest winter on record thanks to a December atmospheric river that dropped several inches of rain across northwest Montana. The precipitation was concentrated in Lincoln County where rivers reached flood stage, wiped out bridges and caused widespread destruction (pictured above.)

Libby finished the season with 5.95 inches of precipitation – 1.59 inches wetter than average.

West Glacier, too, experienced its warmest winter on record since data collection began in 1948 with an average temperature of 31.8 degrees Fahrenheit, finishing 6.6 degrees warmer than average.

The unincorporated community in Glacier National Park ranked No. 19 as the wettest winter on record with 2.01 inches more than average. It was also the second least snowy winter with only 36.9 inches of accumulated snow (or 42.5 inches below average), up only slightly from the 35-inch record in the winter of 1976-1977.

Since Kalispell’s data collection began in 1899, the weather station at Glacier Park International Airport saw the fourth warmest winter with an average of 30.6 degrees – a few degrees below the record of 32.5 degrees during the winter of 1933-1934. The season ended 5.7 degrees warmer than average.

With only 22.5 inches of snowfall, Kalispell had its 20^th least snowy winter, with 15.7 inches below normal. However, there were 4.88 inches of total precipitation – 1.02 inches wetter than average.

While a familiar winter workday ritual of watching the rain fall outside the window at the Beacon HQ in downtown Kalispell is no different today, heavy snow is dropping on Big Mountain as the chairlifts spin their final rounds for the season.

With more than a foot of snow forecast at WMR through tonight, the snow stake might even surpass 100 inches this winter. As of this morning, the depth was 95 inches while mountain officials report 201 inches have fallen to date this season.

But after this storm passes tonight and the sun reveals itself, it’s time to put your party pants on for closing weekend at WMR – someplace warm, a place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful people instinctively flock like the kokanee salmon. I’m talking about a little place called Big Mountain.

WMR’s closing festivities kick off this weekend with the annual Pond Skim at the bottom of Chair 1 at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. Last chair on Chair 1 takes off from the front side at 4 p.m. on Sunday.