Minor Flooding In Bitterroot Valley Temporarily Closes Roads Near Victor
Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton issued a statement on Thursday morning that minor flooding had temporarily closed roads near Victor.
The statement said that Middle Bear Creek Road and Tushapaw Roads were closed due to flooding, and asked residents to avoid the roads until further notice.
Meteorologist Ryan Leach with the National Weather Service said the warm nights and warm days recently have led to a small stream flooding advisory for the Bitterroot Valley.
"We had a really warm night last night, and that let the snow melt keep going all day instead of slowing down like it normally does at night," Leach said. "That helps to fill up the stream banks, and then we had the thunderstorms come through last night, and a lot of those were dropping about a quarter to a half an inch of rain, especially up in the mountains, or maybe even more. So, that on top of all that snow melt really causes some small stream flooding."
Leach said another round of thunderstorms will be coming through the same area.
"That's why we issued the flood advisory because it will add to the water already in that system," he said. "It cooled down with that cold front last night, but not as much, so we're sitting on the edge right now. The advisory warns of streams nearly bank-full or with high, fast-running water potentially going down their banks."
Leach said the storms on Wednesday night mostly passed by Missoula, but did cause some downed tree limbs and power outages in Polson. Lights flickered in Lolo, as well, but no power outages were reported.