# Anticipated flooding



## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

The NWS is forecasting heavy flooding this spring on the Mississippi River because of the near-record snow pack up north. They are anticipating flooding approaching '93 levels. In '93, it was a 180 mile drive to get across the Mississippi to St. Charles (7 miles away).

With all the rain we've had this winter, I can see that it won't take much to have significant flooding because the ground is extremely saturated.

Being between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers and a few miles north of the Missouri, we get all the run-off from up north, so it could get interesting!

https://www.stltoday.com/news/national/increased-spring-flooding-risk-for-plains-and-upper-midwest/article_d1a38356-6aa1-54ef-bdd5-a77c84044b22.html

https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Experts-warn-of-high-flood-risk-in-Illinois-13643498.php

Ralph


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

Here there is alot of talk of the Red River flooding in the eastern part of the state. It pretty much floods every year but they're thinking it'll be worse this year with all the snow down in the southern part of the state.

I think the runoff into the Missouri up here will be about normal as the snowpack in Montana is about average and not as much snow in the western part of ND. What little snow we have is pretty dry and fluffy, don't think there is much moisture in it. Alot of snow in South Dakota though to runoff into the Missouri.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

One to show the actual snow in SD and one for laughs.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I would say most of the snow pack is on the Mississippi watershed.Southern Mn,Northern Iowa and part of Wisc mostly runs into Mississippi and all have a lot of snow.Not quite as much as 93 but March is not over either here.

Hopefully they lowered the water level on the dams on the Missourri so they can hold some back when it melts.IDK if they are that bright to figure it out or if learned anything from 2011


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

About 50 miles north of me on the Mississippi is an 20' tall ice dam. Corp was talking about blasting it because they thought it would take out the dams south of it if it all broke loose at once.

Haven't heard any more about that.

Ralph


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

I hope there isn't a repeat of 93! That was a rough one. Red wing blackbirds and robins have moved back up and they usually are a better indicator than that lying rodent down in Pennsylvania. We still have about 8" of wet heavy snow pack. But if the birds are back up it should be gone in 10 days or so. How much of the shipping has been affected on the Mississippi?


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

swmnhay said:


> I would say most of the snow pack is on the Mississippi watershed.Southern Mn,Northern Iowa and part of Wisc mostly runs into Mississippi and all have a lot of snow.Not quite as much as 93 but March is not over either here.
> 
> Hopefully they lowered the water level on the dams on the Missourri so they can hold some back when it melts.IDK if they are that bright to figure it out or if learned anything from 2011


The Corps didn't learn a thing about managing dams in 2011. Last year they nearly flooded Bismarck off the map when they didn't have storage for all the water that came out of Montana when all their snow melted.

Had a terrible flood in Minot, ND in 2011. Their were dams built in Canada and one north of Minot to help with flood control back in the 60s or 70s. They had them all to full and didn't have enough storage in 2011 and so Minot had a huge flood. Now they're working to build a multi million dollar flood control project in Minot and I'm wondering why its needed, couldn't they just lower the levels behind those dams to store these huge snow or rain events. They all want to keep the lakes high as its good for fishing and other recreation and that brings in the dollars. I like fishing as well but I think protecting peoples homes is more important.


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