The National Weather Service in Des Moines has issued the first hydrologic, or flood outlook for this coming Spring. The outlook covers a period from early February through late April. In general, the Weather Service says the risk of flooding from late Winter into Spring is near or below normal for all locations in their coverage area. Officials caution, however, that a considerable amount of the Winter season remains, and people with interests near river basins need to continue to monitor both weather and river conditions, as well as future Spring Flood outlooks.

The Weather Service says as far as the East Nishnabotna River near Atlantic is concerned, there is only a 10-percent chance the river will reach 16.8-feet. Flood stage along the East Nish near Atlantic, is 17-feet.   The East Fork of the 102 River near Bedford has a 10-percent chance of reaching 18.8-feet.  The flood stage for that body of water is 21-feet. There is a 90-percent chance in the current outlook, that the East Fork River will reach 13.7-feet in the next 90-days, which is still well below flood stage.

The numbers in the outlook were calculated using multiple Spring Season scenarious from 30-or more-years of climatological data. They also take into account current river conditions, snow cover and soil moisture. The next Flood Outlook will be issued by the Weather Service, on February 16th.