Increasing Weekend Warmth Could Lead to Minor Flooding and Ice Jams

Temperatures are on the climb warming past the 20's and 30's, and reaching the 40's late this weekend.  But with the warmth will also come the threat for minor flooding from snow melt and possible ice jams.


You may have noticed a little more of the snow melting away Thursday afternoon as temperatures reached the low 30's.  With temperatures expected to climb into the mid and upper 30's both Friday and Saturday, our five inches of snow from Sunday night and Monday will begin to quickly disappear.


Combine that with rain showers Sunday afternoon through Monday morning, and this may lead to minor flooding as the ground is still frozen.  Runoff from the rain and snow melt will most likely move into local streams, creeks and rivers.  While this won't cause a significant rise, there could be a little extra standing water in some backyards and ditches along the road. 


The quick warm up will also allow some of the ice that redeveloped on the river following our last major warm up, to break apart.  As these ice chunks begin to move downstream, they may become lodged (or stuck) on river bends or along the sides of the river.  This would cause the river upstream from that jam to rise, possibly leading to localized ice jam flooding.  And then when the ice jam becomes dislodged, flooding downstream is possible due to the sudden rush of water flowing down river.


The current moisture content within the snow on the ground - that is if we were to take all that snow and melt it down - would roughly equal about a half an inch, to an inch.  Rainfall over the weekend could range from a quarter of an inch, up to half an inch.  Not a lot, but enough to produce excess runoff into the rivers.