01/02/2026
This is encouraging! The weather in country has been the weirdest I can remember! Low snow makes us all nervous for potential wildfires in the summer so high moisture content is super important.
"You wouldn't know it from all the bare spots, but Bridger Bowl actually set a record for something called "water content" in December. A modest 64 inches of snowfall contained a whopping 9.05 inches of H2O. Compare that to the previous record of 9.04 inches in 1977 — which required nearly double the snow to achieve. The Bozeman-area hill saw 64.75 inches of snow fall this past month that contained 9.05 inches of water, according to information the Bridger Bowl ski patrol provided to the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center.
The old record for water content was set 48 years ago, in December 1977, the center noted in its New Year's Day post. Back then, Bridger collected 114 inches of much lighter snow containing 9.04 inches of water. The center noted southwest Montana is "fortunate to have relatively great snow coverage (especially compared to other parts of the country)," although noting "low elevation snow coverage has been limited due to warm weather and rain."
