Missoula Now In Top Five Of Wettest Water Years
The unrelenting rain that has been visiting Missoula over the past few weeks has vastly increased the overall totals to the point that the region has reached near the top in moisture levels.
Meteorologist Leanne Allegretto looked at the totals for the water year just before 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
"As of now, we're at 3.33 inches, and that puts us solidly in the top five for the wettest water years," Allegretto said. "If we keep going at this rate with what we're expecting through tomorrow, we'll probably get to number four and possibly number three, but we're solidly in the top five."
Allegretto said increased rainfall poses no danger as yet for local rivers and streams.
"Luckily, we started out with fairly low steam levels so they had a lot of ways to come up through the winter and the melt season, but it's not an issue currently," she said. "Once the higher terrain snow pack starts to melt, if it combines with persistent rain like this, that's when we could see problems, but we don't see that in the near future."
Allegretto said the Missoula area will experience more rain that could be mixed with light snow all the way to the valley floors Thursday and Friday, however, because surface temperatures are relatively warm, road will quickly clear and simply be bare and wet.