Historic Notes from Flood Country

All-time record flood crests in some areas. The large area affected by major flash flooding and river flooding is almost unprecedented. Click on our Weather Brains link and listen to a very interesting interview with a forecaster from the National Weather Service in Des Moines that we interviewed last night. Here are some general notes:

CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
The river stage early today was 20.2 feet and falling. The flood stage is 12 feet, so major flooding is still underway. The river is expected to finally drop below flood stage by Saturday morning.

CEDAR RIVER AT CEDAR FALLS
Flood stage is 88 feet. It was at 92.2 feet at 6:00 this morning. That has been a historic flood in the Cedar Falls area. The river should fall below flood stage early this afternoon–a great relief to the people in that town, where an uncountable number of homes were flooded and many of them ruined.

IOWA RIVER AT MARSHALLTOWN
Luckily only minor flooding continues in that town east of Des Moines. Flood stage is 18 feet and the reading at 6:00 a.m. today was 18.5 feet. The river will continue to fall slowly dropping below flood stage early tomorrow.

THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI (All of the reports below are along the big river.)

QUINCY, ILLINIOIS (My wife was born there, but grew up n Phoenix.)
Flood stage is 17 feet. A crest of 31 feet is expected Thursday evening. This will be 2 feet above the major flood of 1973.

CLARKSVILLE, MISSOURI
Flood stage is 25 feet. It was already 10 feet above flood stage by yesterday afternoon. A crest of 38 feet is forecast for Friday afternoon, which will be 13 feet above flood stage–an all-time record.

ALTON, ILLINOIS
Flood stage is 21 feet. A crest of 33 feet is expected Saturday morning and it may go higher than that later as the main flood crest rolls down the mighty Mississippi.

ST. LOUIS
Flood stage is 30 feet. A crest of 39.8 feet is expected Saturday evening–almost 10 feet above flood stage. At 40 feet, major flooding gets underway. Also at this level, the Choteau Island levee overflows. It protects 2,400 acres.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI
Flood stage is 32 feet. Major flooding is forecast reaching a crest of 43.5 feet next Monday. When it reaches 43 feet, the flood gate at the end of North Main Street will be closed to try to protect.

DOWNSTREAM ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Flood crest forecasts have not been issued yet further down the Mississippi, including communities on the river bank in Louisiana and Mississippi. It may be two weeks before the crest reaches places like Natchez, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Stay tuned.

OTHER NOTES: Federal flood experts believe that 27 levees on the Mississippi are at risk of breaking or being overflowed. We all know there is a big difference in an overflow and an actual break in the levee. The latter is much more serious.

DES MOINES FORECAST
Fortunately, they are getting a break from showers and thunderstorms until about Tuesday and even then it doesn’t look like a major event like they have had an overdose of this year. Another thing that enters into the flooding is the tremendous amount of snow that fell over the Upper Midwest this past winter. The snow melt already had the ground wet and soft before the big rain set in.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
At 10:45 this morning, a big cluster of strong thunderstorms dumping heavy rain was moving toward teh SSE out of Oklahoma and crossing the Red River into North Texas. I do not remember seeing so many Moderate Risks of severe weather as the nation has endured this year. Brian Peters said the same thing last night on our Weather Brains program. Fortunately, we do not have a moderate risk today, but a huge area is under a Slight Risk all the way from North Texas, including the Panhandle, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Texarkana and extending NNW to include the east two-thirds of Montana. This also includes such cities as Oklahoma City, Cheyenne, Great Falls, and Helena. A separate Slight Risk is near the coastal area of both South Carolina and North Carolina and still a third Slight Risk for all of New England and Maine. The Northeast has had an unheard of number of severe weather threats this year.

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