(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Montana will have great weather for Independence Day, but water in Flathead Lake low – Daily Montanan [1] ['Aislin Tweedy', 'More From Author', '- June'] Date: 2023-06-30 Summer will finally come to Missoula with weather ranging from the high 80s to low 90s in time for Independence Day, after spending June with rain and thunderstorms. Meteorologist Kevin Shive said there is going to be spotty showers in Missoula for the next few days, but the mountains and valleys will stay dry due to the rise in humidity. “It’s going to feel like kind of a normal transition kind of that early first week in July getting past Independence Day, where you kind of flip from the showery, you know, more wet pattern to kind of get drier, warmer and of the more summer for Western Montana.” said Shive. As the temperatures begin to run 5 to 10 degrees above average, Shive said they will keep an eye out for potential fires as the process of drying out begins. Great Falls Meteorologist Rosemary Webb said that Great Falls received 3.39 inch rainfall as of June 29, and the normal average is 2.59 inches. Webb said that the Climate Prediction Center predicts an equal chance to see normal temperatures for July, and is grateful for the rising temperatures that are building during the weekend. Webb said that Cascade County is no longer in a drought situation. “There’s plenty of moisture, but if we do see these ridges building in the month of July and high temperatures, it can be very dry, it can dry out conditions very quickly,” Webb said. “That can contribute to moist fuels and that can contribute to fires. But at the moment, things are looking good, and we don’t have any threats for the beginning of July for any for any type of fires or anything.” Trevor Lavoie, a meteorologist for Riverton, Wyoming on Wind River Reservation, said that even though they are in the month of June, they are seeing more Spring patterns. “We’ve had above normal precipitation and have kept temperatures cooler than normal for the month of June. Anecdotally, we’ve kind of summarized here amongst ourselves that June this month has been more like May historically speaking, if you recall, or at least for us, in our neck of the woods March was very cold. We had highs in the teens.” Lavoie said. Lavoie said that there is high pressure building up in the Yellowstone National Park area during the weekend, and that visitors will begin to see temperatures slightly above normal for the first time in the season on Sunday. “Like I said, maybe we start to see a transition, going on a bigger scale will be the precursor to the monsoon season, but obviously we’ll have to wait and see how that pattern evolves going into the fourth and then into the weekend,” he said. As Missoula and Great Falls report warm weather to come, the Flathead Lake area is already concerned as below-averaged winter snowpack thawed out early, and has led to depleted stream flows, Flathead Beacon reported. Politicians, including Ryan Zinke and Steve Daines have been putting pressure on damkeepers to release more water. Brian Lipscomb, CEO of Energy Keepers, Inc., the corporation that operates the Se̓liš Ksanka Qĺispe̓ (SKQ) Dam and controls the output from Flathead Lake said that there’s not much relief in sight, barring rainstorms in the forecast. “There’s just not a lot of water in the northwest right now and there will be cascading effects from lower energy generation to recreational impacts.” said Lipscomb. It was reported by the U.S. Geological Survey data that the water for Flathead Lake had reached an all-time low for this time of the year. Furthermore, the survey found the surface water levels have reached 9 inches below the Hungry Horse Dam. “We can point directly to climate change, and the scary part about this is it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. North Flathead Yacht Club Commodore Ashili Slawter said that climatologists have forecasted that it will get much worse, before things will get better. “We’re going to see much hotter and drier and much colder and wetter seasons-both extremes going forward,” said Slawter. In 2022, Flathead Lake was naturally overfilled, and Lipscomb said that the similar oscillation will continue to get more extreme. “There’s not much that can be done to curtail the situation,” Lipscomb said “This is Mother Nature right now, in the midst of the climate change world.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/30/montana-will-have-great-weather-for-independence-day-but-water-in-flathead-lake-low/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/