"It's all the (high) temperatures we've seen, the chinooks, the not freezing at night," said Roy Kaiser, water supply specialist for the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Kaiser said the snowpack in the upper Missouri River drainage, as of Monday, was 81 percent of average and the upper Yellowstone river drainage at 74 percent.
"We have some sites that are already melted out," Kaiser said, and some on the west side of the Continental Divide are approaching that condition, with record low amounts of snow.
Other readings included the Jefferson River drainage had 76 percent of average, the Madison 85 percent and the Gallatin 82 percent.
The Smith River, a popular early season stream for float trips, had only 72 percent of average, Kaiser's report noted.
Much of Montana is in its seventh year of drought.
So far this winter, Kaiser said things are shaping up comparable to 1988 and 2001, both low-snow years that preceded summers filled with wildfires.
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