The Daily Inter Lake.

Spring snowstorms and cool weather have pushed the mountain snowpack in Northwest Montana to above-average levels.

As of April 1, the snowpack in the Flathead River drainage was 111 percent of average. The Kootenai River drainage to the west was 122 percent of average, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

"The mountains will typically reach seasonal peaks during April," said Roy Kiser, water supply specialist with the service.

Overall, west of the Continental Divide, snowpack levels were 113 percent of average. East of the Divide, snowpack was 103 percent of normal.

March and April snow benefited both Flathead Valley ski areas.

The settled base of snow at the summit of Big Mountain measured 133 inches on Friday. The mountain has received 424 inches of snow during a record 2007-08 winter that shattered the previous winter high of 406 inches.

This is the final weekend of skiing at Whitefish Mountain Resort.

Blacktail Mountain Ski Area had a settled base of 120 inches of snow at midmountain on Friday. That's an all-time high for the ski area near Lakeside.

Blacktail is open this weekend and next weekend (April 12 and 13).

And more snow is on the way for the high country.

On Friday afternoon, the National Weather Service was predicting that elevations above 3,500 feet in Western Montana would receive 3 to 6 inches of new snow by noon today.

The snow levels could mean normal river flows this year.

The conservation service predicted that river flows from April through July should be 97 to 105 percent of average in the Flathead basin and 101 to 108 percent of average in the Kootenai basin.

Those forecasts assume normal spring conditions. Actual river flows will depend on the rate of snow melt and amounts of spring rain.

Despite the abundance of snow up high, precipitation in the Flathead Valley is slightly below normal.

As of Friday, the weather station at Glacier Park International Airport had measured 2.18 inches of precipitation so far this year, .70 below the average of 2.88 inches on that date.

Since Oct. 1, the valley has received 4.35 inches of precipitation, which is 1.47 inches below average.