Maggie's Farm

I have known for years now that our schools of journalism do not teach "objectivity" rather they teach a strategy known as "advocacy". This reporting the news in such a way that helps the community stay "calm". Today's Missoulian newspaper is a classic example of the most outrageous lie imaginable. Let me explain:
Here in the Northern Rockies we have always had snowpack on the highest elevations even in the middle of summer. It was clearly visible. In mid summer an average at those highest elevations may be about 6 feet. It fed our rivers and streams throughout the summer. Last summer (2024) due to climate warming we lost ALL of our snowpack by mid June. A typical winter would have me standing in snow up to about 2.5 FEET in the valley. Our kids would be wearing snow boots and snow wear to go trick or treating by the time Halloween came about. They would be wading in snow about 2feet deep. By mid January our high mountain snowpack would be well up to between 10 -14 feet. My memory may not have that perfectly, but I do remember the snow on the foothills beginning in September!

Up until last week we had NO SNOW. A big storm came in from the Pacific and left a good amount on the pass between Montana and Idaho. East of that pass we did not get snow until the past few days.
But, we did finally get some snow.

Because we who live here understand how critical the snowpack is we are constantly watching it. The concern over the absence of snow began to become a loud conversation that was getting louder. BUT NOW we got some snow and the local left wing newspaper reports that we are at 90% of normal!! That horrific piece of misinformation is supposed to make us all feel better about the snow pack! We won't be worrying so much don't you know. Two years in a row with no snowpack by June means everyone is in trouble--not just the ranchers and farmers, but rather the fish in the rivers and all those folks living way down stream in Las Vegas, Arizona, So. California. etc.
I checked with two ski resports to try to get a more accurae sense of their most current posting on conditions there. As you can guess the owners of ski resorts are held to a pretty accurate reporting of conditions. Below is a report from the Lookout pass. 2 ft of base and less than 4 ft at the summit! https://skilookout.com/snow-report

The report from Whitefish Ski Resort is very interesting--read carefully between the lines and look out at the collection of snow on top of poles and roofs.
The Whitefish Ski Resort and read their report shows that their base at 4500' (aprox)elevation is at 5 1/2 feet. May I remind you that this is what it should be in mid November! https://skiwhitefish.com/snowreport/
Read carefully and see how that report wiggles around.
Happy New Year--Pray for Snow because at the rate at which we are going it will be a very very dry summer!
**Do you remember that last year we had that mysterious "weather balloon from China" hanging directly over our area of the rockies before moving on?
Back in the 1950's we had family friends who were engineers at Lockheed Corporation. They use to talk about the possibility that the "Russians could mess with our weather". It seemed impossible then, but now of course we can manipulate some rainfall and i believe that they do that in Arizona over the croplands--could be wrong about that!
Pray for snow--our snow!

Dear RJP:
Please forgive the typos. That should have read they would be wading through snow about 2ft by mid January. I had to cut/paste several times. My apologies. It is very important to get this information absolutely correct! Don't worry about "picking on me" I love having the true facts! My most recent picture of a large snowfall in the valley which as you know is vastly different than the snow pack in the mountains, is a picture of me from January 2011, I am standing outside with last night's snow that DH had just shovelled from our double wide driveway. It is piled up to about 4FT and I am still standing on snow, there is a deep crust on top of the asphalt.

Please feel free to search for any more reliable information you can find regarding our snow pack. I first arrived in this area in 1982 and I know for certain that we had snow on the valley floor the second week of September! Don't know when "global warming" is supposed to have started.