Residents in Gallatin County should expect high water to be present in the county through the end of June.
Current forecasts for the National Weather Service are predicting that peak runoff in the Gallatin River Basin will not occur until mid June with water levels beginning to drop off at the end of the month. This means that as the water levels increase, they will likely remain at a high level until the end of June.
Residents should be aware that this year we may have flooding conditions present for an extended period of time. This means once an area becomes flooded, it may remain flooded for quite a while. Residents are encouraged to take this into consideration when deciding what measures to take in preparing their property for flooding.
This video is from Mid-May in Bear Canyon, outside of Bozeman. The creek has just started rising:
In recent history most of the flooding problems in Gallatin County have developed quickly and the water levels have dropped in a matter of days. The Gallatin County Emergency Department and NOAA released the following graphs showing historic and forecast runoff conditions:
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