Saturday, June 4, 2011

...Flooding on the Missouri River 2011...

The entire river is flooding, from Montana to the confluence* with the Mississippi
From the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Kansas City:

In the past few weeks, the upper Missouri basin has received nearly a year`s worth of rainfall. In addition, snow pack runoff entering the upper portion of the river system is 140 percent of normal. These conditions have resulted in Missouri basin reservoirs across eastern Montana and the Dakotas nearing their maximum levels. Record releases have begun at Gavin’s Point dam located to the west of Yankton, South Dakota. Current releases are around 80,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), with plans to increase the release to 150,000 cfs by mid-June. The previous high release at Gavin’s Point was 70,000 cfs in 1997.
 
These extremely high flows, combined with normal rainfall, may result in near-record flooding along portions of the Missouri River. At this time, flooding in the immediate Kansas City area is expected to be within the minor to moderate category, with the potential of flood walls being closed in the central industrial district if the crest nears 39 feet.

For the most up to date information on likely long term stages based on Gavin's Point releases, please see the  
Corps of Engineers Long Range Forecast

Please Note: The following table is a long-range Missouri River forecast from the US Army Corps of Engineers, assuming normal summer precipitation along with the expected peak releases of 150,000 cfs from Gavin’s Point dam. Record and 2010 flood crests have been included for reference....MORE
*The Big Muddy is the, well, muddier one: