Carbon County, Montana
Beartooth front · Red Lodge · Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone · US-212 / WY border gateway
- Check current snowpack, drought, streamflow, and soil moisture before stocking, hay buying, or destocking.
- See where Carbon County calves moved in 2023 — destinations, seasonal pattern, and shipping windows.
- Look up water rights, parcels, and ownership via Cadastral, DNRC WRQS, and WaterMapper.
- Reach the District 4 brand inspector and verify cattle-buyer bonds before consigning.
Snowpack · SWE
Snow Water Equivalent — water that would result if today’s snowpack melted now.
Water-Year Precip
Total precipitation since Oct 1 — the start of the NRCS water year.
Drought Monitor
Worst drought class anywhere in the county per the U.S. Drought Monitor.
D0 abnormally dry · D1 moderate · D2 severe · D3 extreme · D4 exceptional. Percentages = share of county area at or worse than each class.
Streamflow
Cubic feet per second flowing past the nearest in-county USGS gauge right now.
Soil Moisture
VWC = Volumetric Water Content — the percent of soil volume that is water. Montana Mesonet probe average.
Shallow ≈ 4″ depth · Deep ≈ 20″ depth.
Bands (shallow + deep average): ≥ 30 % moist · 22–30 % adequate · 15–22 % drying · < 15 % dry.
Precip Anomaly
Inches above (+) or below (−) the 10-year normal precipitation for each trailing window. Calendar rolling windows ending today — not the water year (see the separate Water-Year Precip tile for that).
1-mo = last 30 days · 3-mo = last 90 days · 12-mo = trailing year.
12-mo bands: > +1″ wet · −0.5″ to +1″ near normal · −2″ to −0.5″ dry · < −2″ very dry.
Reading this dashboard — what these terms mean
Median vs. mean. We use the median (NRCS standard) so a single very-wet or very-dry year doesn’t skew the baseline.
Water year. Hydrology runs Oct 1 → Sep 30. Most of a year’s snowpack accumulation is captured in the same season it melts.
Percentile (streamflow). 50 = exactly typical for this calendar date. 19 = today’s flow is lower than 81 % of all readings ever recorded on this date. 81 = lower than only 19 %.
VWC (soil moisture). Volumetric Water Content. Rough field bands: under 10 % = dry, 15–25 % = productive growing-season range, over 35 % = saturated.
Drought scale. D0–D4 from the U.S. Drought Monitor, weekly Thursday release. The percentages tell you what fraction of county area is at or worse than each band — a county can be 100 % at D2 with 0 % at D3.
Precip anomaly. Inches above or below the 10-year normal precipitation for that trailing window. Trailing calendar windows ending today, NOT the water year — the Water-Year Precip tile is the water-year measure. Anomaly is in inches; “% of median” is a ratio. Both useful; anomaly is easier to interpret when comparing a dry summer month to a wet spring month.
Forage Condition. A 0–100 county-scale index of rangeland forage conditions relative to this county’s own historical normal, blending satellite-observed vegetation response, growing-season moisture, drought stress, and usability. Higher = more favorable relative to local normal. Categories: 0–25 Poor, 26–50 Fair, 51–75 Good, 76–100 Excellent. Long-Term Forage Potential is a separate long-run rating, not part of the score. Beta — for regional screening and comparison, not a pasture-level forage inventory or stocking-rate recommendation.
How often this updates. The moisture and drought tiles (snowpack, streamflow, soil moisture, rain, water-year precip, drought class) refresh every morning. The Forage Condition score’s satellite vegetation read — and the separate Irrigated Hay/Pasture read — refresh weekly (Mondays), because the underlying satellite imagery only updates on a ~16-day cycle. So the water tiles move day to day; the vegetation reads step forward about once a week.
Carbon County in context
Adjacent counties in the the Beartooth-Clark’s Fork corridor. Carbon County shares the Beartooth Plateau snowpack system with these neighbors.
Click any neighbor for its full county dashboard.
Snowpack & Moisture Detail
SNOTEL station-by-station read for Carbon County. The dashboard above gives current aggregate; this section shows where the water actually is.
Carbon County snowpack is critically below median across 2 reporting stations as of June 04, 2026. Two SNOTEL stations monitor county snowpack. Carbon County watershed snowpack critically below normal (county avg 27% of median); highest at Cole Creek (34%), lowest at Burnt Mtn (20%).
| Station | Elev (ft) | SWE (in) | % of Median | Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnt Mtn | 5,920 | 0.0 | 20% | Carbon County — elevation 5920 ft |
| Cole Creek | 7,910 | 0.0 | 34% | Carbon County — elevation 7910 ft |
Basin Index: Carbon County watershed snowpack critically below normal (county avg 27% of median); highest at Cole Creek (34%), lowest at Burnt Mtn (20%). Drought Monitor (valid 2026-06-02): D2 Severe across 68% of county; D1 Moderate across 32% of county. Total area in drought: 100% (valid 2026-06-02). Station snapshot as of June 04, 2026 — live dashboard above is current.
Two-Week Rainfall
Observed (prior 14 days) and forecast (next 14 days) · Carbon County · as of 2026-06-16
| Period | Window | Rain (in) | Normal (in) | % of Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prior 2 weeks (observed) | Jun 2 – Jun 15, 2026 | 0.30 | 1.49 | 20% |
| Next 2 weeks (forecast) | Jun 16 – Jun 29, 2026 | 0.07 | 1.00 | 7% |
Observed detail: 2 measurable-rain day(s) in the prior two weeks; largest single day 0.28 in.
Water Rights, Irrigation & Land Ownership
The Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone originates in Wyoming and enters Carbon County near Belfry, flowing northeast through Bridger before joining the Yellowstone at Laurel. Rock Creek drains the Beartooth face directly into the Clark’s Fork near Red Lodge and is the county’s most snowpack-sensitive tributary.
Clark’s Fork water rights in Carbon County include both Montana-adjudicated rights and an interstate compact with Wyoming that governs upstream diversions — Montana ranchers with junior rights on the upper Clark’s Fork should know their standing under the compact in a dry year. Rock Creek above Red Lodge carries senior rights dating to the 1880s mining and ranching era, and is fully appropriated in low-flow summers. The Pryor Creek watershed in the northeastern corner of the county is a separate drainage entirely, flowing north toward Yellowstone County with its own adjudicated right pool. Irrigation infrastructure in the Clark’s Fork valley between Belfry and Bridger is well-developed by county standards, with several cooperative ditch companies managing diversions. Carbon County’s higher elevation means runoff peaks later than the valley floor — April and May gauge readings are less meaningful than June flows for final season planning.
Production & Sales
Operation character, hay base, and how cattle reach market from Carbon County.
Cattle production
Carbon County operations skew toward traditional cow-calf outfits running mother cows on deeded ground in winter and moving cattle up to Custer Gallatin National Forest allotments above Red Lodge in summer. The high-country allotments above the Beartooth face are some of the most productive in the region, but forest road access and permit requirements add management complexity compared to plains operations. The Clark’s Fork valley around Belfry and Bridger supports larger irrigated operations with more hay base than the mountain ranches. A handful of small-scale direct-marketing beef operations near Red Lodge serve the outdoor recreation and tourism market, a niche not common in neighboring counties.
Hay & winter feed
Rock Creek and Clark’s Fork bottomland hay — primarily alfalfa and orchard grass mix — supplies the county’s mountain-side operations, while Belfry and Bridger area farms produce alfalfa for sale into the Billings market. First-cutting at Red Lodge elevation runs early to mid-July, significantly later than the valley floor, giving the county a natural hedge against a single early frost. Operators in the Clark’s Fork valley near Bridger cut earlier and can get two to three cuttings with good water; mountain ranches typically get one solid cut and rely on native grass stockpiling for fall grazing.
Logistics · sale barns & trucking
Red Lodge on US-212 is the county’s commercial center, but Billings 65 miles north on US-212/I-90 is the market destination for most livestock. Bridger at the US-310 junction serves the eastern Clark’s Fork valley and has a shorter haul to Billings via I-90 at Laurel. The Beartooth Highway closes in winter and restricts movement to Wyoming — operators near Cooke City must route entirely through Red Lodge or Laurel regardless of season. No active sale barn operates in Carbon County; Billings Livestock Commission and occasional Laurel-area order buyers handle the county’s marketings.