Rainfall and Flooding Update
Here is the two week rainfall over the Midwest. Contributing to the current Midwest flooding was snow on the ground.
The map below shows river gauges that are measuring flood or near-flood conditions (colors other than green). Purple is major and, in a few cases, record flooding.
There is an unseasonably large snow cover west of the current flooding with a lot of water locked in as indicated below:
Right now, the area of snow cover in the northern half of the Plains and Rockies does not seem to be an imminent flood threat due to the drought and the fact that heavy rain is not forecast at the present time.
ADDITION: By request, here are the hydrographs for the Mississippi River from Burlington downstream to Hannibal and St. Louis.
UPDATE (10:17am) from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
See comment below. This is the hydrograph for the Illinois R. at Peoria. According to this forecast, it would be a record crest.
 |
| click to enlarge |
There is an unseasonably large snow cover west of the current flooding with a lot of water locked in as indicated below:
Right now, the area of snow cover in the northern half of the Plains and Rockies does not seem to be an imminent flood threat due to the drought and the fact that heavy rain is not forecast at the present time.
ADDITION: By request, here are the hydrographs for the Mississippi River from Burlington downstream to Hannibal and St. Louis.
UPDATE (10:17am) from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The National Weather Service forecasts a crest Tuesday of 39.5 feet, which would be the highest since 1995 — a year in which flooding was nearly as bad as the historic slow-motion disaster of 1993.
“This is a big flood,” said Mark Fuchs, Weather Service hydrologist at Weldon Spring. “It is becoming more serious by the day.”
If the forecast proves correct, this crest will nudge its way into the top 10 on record in St. Louis. It would get almost within 10 feet of the Great Flood’s record of 49.6 feet on Aug. 1, 1993, when the river rose halfway up the staircase to the Gateway Arch.
See comment below. This is the hydrograph for the Illinois R. at Peoria. According to this forecast, it would be a record crest.
The IL River at Peoria is expected to hit record flood levels by Tuesday due to the runoff from Chicago - 30.1 ft was the last estimate I saw (flood stage is 17.1 feet) - and if I recall your earlier posting we are due for another 2.5-3 inches over the next seven days which could be bad :(
ReplyDelete