Montana Counties
Live moisture, drought, streamflow, soil moisture, and precipitation data for all 56 Montana counties. Updated daily.
Five Daily Data Sources
Every county page pulls live data from five independent public sources, refreshed automatically each morning. USDA Drought Monitor classifications (D0 through D4, percent of county area by severity) and NOAA NCEI precipitation anomalies (1-month, 3-month, and 12-month departures from the 1901–2000 normal) are available for all 56 counties — these are county-level products with universal coverage across Montana. USGS streamflow (current discharge in cubic feet per second plus a day-of-year historical percentile from the full period of record) covers 51 counties; the five without an active in-county gauge — Carter, Fallon, Garfield, Prairie, and Wibaux — show that field as unavailable.
NRCS SNOTEL snow water equivalent and water-year precipitation accumulation cover 26 mountain counties where the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service operates snowpack telemetry stations — primarily western and south-central Montana. Plains and valley counties without SNOTEL stations correctly report “No Snowpack” rather than displaying fabricated data. Montana Mesonet soil moisture (volumetric water content at shallow and deep soil profiles) covers 37 counties where the University of Montana Climate Office operates soil-water-profile-equipped weather stations; the 19 counties without Mesonet coverage — mostly in western Montana’s mountain corridors — show that tile as unavailable.
All data refreshes daily at approximately 5:30 AM Mountain Time via an automated pipeline pulling from NRCS AWDB, USDA Drought Monitor, USGS Water Services, Montana Mesonet, and NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance. When a source is unavailable for a given county, the dashboard shows that field as “not available” rather than omitting it — so you always know what’s measured and what isn’t.
Glossary
Key terms and abbreviations used on each county’s conditions dashboard:
| Term | What It Means |
|---|---|
| SWE | Snow Water Equivalent — the amount of liquid water contained in the snowpack, measured in inches. If you melted all the snow at a SNOTEL site today, SWE is how many inches of water you’d get. Higher SWE = more water stored for spring runoff and irrigation. |
| % of Median | Current SWE compared to the historical median for this date. 100% = normal. Below 70% = Below Normal. Above 110% = Above Normal. |
| SNOTEL | Snow Telemetry — a network of automated mountain weather stations operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Each station measures snowpack (SWE), precipitation, temperature, and sometimes soil moisture at high elevation. Montana has 96 active SNOTEL sites, concentrated in the mountain counties of western and south-central Montana. |
| Forage Score | A 0–100 synthetic index linking snowpack conditions to expected grazing-season forage availability. Higher = better expected forage. Currently computed from SWE percent-of-median only; a rangeland-scientist review is planned to incorporate additional signals. |
| D0–D4 | USDA Drought Monitor severity classifications. D0 = Abnormally Dry, D1 = Moderate Drought, D2 = Severe Drought, D3 = Extreme Drought, D4 = Exceptional Drought. Percentages shown are cumulative: “D2 at 78%” means 78% of the county is in Severe Drought or worse. |
| CFS | Cubic Feet per Second — the standard unit for measuring river discharge (streamflow). The daily value comes from a USGS stream gauge on each county’s principal river. |
| Percentile | Where today’s streamflow ranks against the historical record for this day of the year. A percentile of 25 means today’s flow is higher than only 25% of all recorded flows for this calendar date — i.e., below normal. 50 = median. 75+ = above normal. |
| VWC | Volumetric Water Content — the percentage of soil volume that is water, measured by Montana Mesonet soil-moisture sensors at shallow (5–10 cm) and deep (50–100 cm) profiles. Higher VWC = wetter soil. Useful as an early indicator of pasture green-up potential and drought stress. |
| Precip Anomaly | How much more or less precipitation a county has received compared to the 1901–2000 historical normal, measured over 1-month, 3-month, and 12-month windows. Positive = wetter than normal, negative = drier. Source: NOAA NCEI Climate at a Glance. |
| Precip YTD | Precipitation Year-to-Date — total accumulated precipitation since October 1 (the start of the NRCS water year) at SNOTEL stations in the county. Measured in inches. |
| NRCS | Natural Resources Conservation Service — the USDA agency that operates the SNOTEL network and publishes snowpack and water-supply data. |
| USGS | United States Geological Survey — the federal agency that operates stream gauges and publishes daily river discharge data via the National Water Information System (NWIS). |
| NCEI | National Centers for Environmental Information — a NOAA center that publishes county-level climate data including monthly precipitation totals and historical normals via the Climate at a Glance service. |
| USDM | US Drought Monitor — a weekly map published jointly by USDA, NOAA, and the National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) classifying drought severity by county across the United States. |
Select a region below to filter, or search by county name. Click any county card to view its full conditions dashboard.