Snow?

[jimj]

I'm no weatherman, just someone who lives between Kalispell and Whitefish and from what have seen we have several different micro climate areas here. Right now it's 12 degrees out and pretty much dry ground around the area even though it's snowed/rained off and on all week. Wind has a lot to do with where the snow ends up and we've had some warm (45 deg) temps for a couple of weeks now. A good example, we have friends in Ferndale (near bigfork) and when we got snow last week of about 2 inches they got 18 inches and they are only about 18 miles away. NYMT is spot on about the W.Glacier canyon area, it has it's own weather and it can be sunny here and snowing there and they're only 12 to 15 miles from us. The funny thing that I've noticed is when we are supposed to get a heavy snow the wind comes out of the canyon and while the snow technically falls here I guess the wind ends up blowing it to areas south.
In my observation if you're looking for snowy look around Fernadale,bigfork, or north of whitefish on hwy 93 or pretty much above 4000 feet as that is where the snow level is most days.
I was always baffled at the snow stats for the area, like when they say "Kalispell gets 60-80 inches of snow a year" and I've yet to see snow piled up anywhere for any period of time. You'd think there'd be piles all over the place, snow covered roads with mounds down the center and people needing snow shoes to walk around.
Well, truth be told we usually drive on dry or damp pavement not snowy, tennis shoes will work most days and the most snow I've seen built up in front yards so far is maybe 5 inches. I've seen more snow in Tahoe or Grand Rapids on a more constant basis than I've ever seen here. Again, it's all about elevation and location as to if it sticks and stays or not.