West

A summer that looks a whole lot more like winter has travelers across the West scrambling to revise their Fourth of July itineraries -- or at least their packing lists.

Ski poles are replacing fishing poles at popular hiking and camping spots where late-winter snowstorms blanketed Western mountains from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada.

"A lot of people are calling it the trifecta day, where they're going to ski in the morning, mountain bike in the afternoon, maybe do something on the lake in the evening," said Julie Mauer, a spokeswoman at Sierra ski resort Squaw Valley, which saw record-breaking snowfall this season. The resort plans to open four ski lifts on the upper mountain and promises free commemorative July 4 t-shirts to the first 5,000 guests who show up on Monday.

At Snowbird in Utah, where upper runs have remained open every weekend, resort operators are even considering trying to extend the season through July 24 for Pioneer Day, a Utah state holiday that generally sees a lot of travel, said spokeswoman Emily Moench.

PHOENIX -- Crews have made significant progress attacking three major wildfires in Arizona, but fire danger across the Southwest will remain for weeks to come until seasonal rains arrive.

Storms that normally stop the fire threat in the Southwest aren't expected to come until mid-July at the soonest. Officials say that means the large blazes churning across Arizona's forestlands won't be the last.

BILLINGS, Mont. — Emergency workers ferried supplies to more than 300 people cut off Friday by flooding that has overwhelmed Montana towns and caused an estimated $8.6 million in damages to date.

Heavy rain and the runoff from record mountain snowpacks have caused rivers over much of the West to spill from their banks. Montana has been hit particularly hard over the past few weeks, with hundreds of homes inundated and scores of roadways swamped.

GRAND COULEE DAM, Wash. -- The giant concrete dams of the Pacific Northwest are overflowing with water. Wyoming has deployed National Guard troops to pile up sandbags. A federal official compares the impending situation to a bucking bull ready to storm out of his chute.

States across the West are bracing for major flooding in the coming weeks once a record mountain snowpack starts melting and sending water gushing into rivers, streams and low-lying communities. The catalyst will be warmer temperatures forecast for the next week that could set off a rapid thaw.