LOLO — Drought has taken a toll on many of Western Montana’s rivers, streams and creeks. The impact has been noticed by many, including floaters and KPAX’s Meteorologist, Erin Yost.
Nate Nielsen, a local paddler, said he's seen “extremely low” flows while floating the Bitterroot and other rivers.
“It's not the Bitterroot River anymore, we call it the Bitterroot stream. Can’t even float it with fins on the paddle board right now,” he said. “Even Lolo Creek, it's like completely dried up and fish are dying in places.”
It’s not just the Bitterroot or Lolo Creek, water is waining across Western Montana. Yost said flows are very low, even for late summer.
“We saw above average temperatures for May, June, July, August. It just compounded and that has made a lot of our stream flows, from the Blackfoot River to Rock Creek to the Lower Clark Fork, I mean, just everywhere around West Central Montana, a good 50% to 60% of normal,” she said. “We’re well below average where we should be seeing our stream flows.”
Around 95% of Montana started off 2025 in a drought. With little snowpack and hot, dry temps, that has continued in many of the western and central parts of the state. Many are hoping for more moisture as we head into winter.
“This year, mother nature wasn't too nice to us, unfortunately,” Yost said. “We can really hope that next spring runoff is nice and slow and we get those rains for May and June. But, otherwise, it's going to be quite some time before we start to see those stream flows rebounding.”
While the flows are low, Montanans’ love for the water is not drying up.
“Takes me longer to float, damages my gear a little bit more but, other than that, I really don't care as long as I'm on the water,” Nielsen said.
