(Radio Iowa) — The risk of spring flooding along the Missouri River in western Iowa remains above normal, according to the National Weather Service’s second spring flood outlook, released Thursday. The next few weeks look generally dry. Mike Gillisipie, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, says snow has been melting at a steady, ideal rate, and that could continue. Gillispie says, “The longer we can keep this up, the less chance there is of that real significant flooding, barring any real big, heavy future precipitation.”

Very wet soil and the large volume of water flowing down the Missouri are the two things contributing to the above-normal flood risk along the river. If the snow continues to melt steadily rather than rapidly, Gillispie says it would be better for the Missouri River and its tributaries, kind of like turning a sink on and off.  “If you turn it up, if you have a real rapid snowmelt, all that water comes off at once,” he says. “If you have temperatures getting up into the 40s during the day, dropping back below freezing at night, it’s like turning the faucet on just a little bit and then shutting it off.”

The Missouri River from below Sioux City to Omaha has an increased chance of getting to flood stage this spring. Northwest Iowa tributaries, including the Big and Little Sioux Rivers, are expected to rise to major flood levels. The National Weather Service will release a third spring flood outlook on March 12th.

(Reporting by Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The year 2019 stands out for record precipitation and record flooding across Iowa and much of the region, according to Doug Kluck, the Central Region climate services director at the National Weather Service in Kansas City. Kluck says, “Across the Midwest and, to some degree, the Missouri River basin, the Midwest (states) have never seen a wetter year, in fact, they’ve never seen a wetter year — by far.”

Parts of Iowa saw more rainfall last year than ever before, as well as flooding that surpassed all previous recorded high water marks. The wet soil meant many Iowa farmers faced extreme difficulty with spring planting as well as the fall harvest. While there are predictions of a repeat in 2020, Kluck says he does NOT expect to see that mix of weather conditions again. “Just off the cuff, I would say the likelihood of that happening again is very, very low, to get close to that record or exceed it, for sure,” Kluck says. “But even if it is above normal, which is a whole bunch of other years, by the way, we’re going to have severe problems.”

He says the patterns that are developing show we’re clearly moving toward more precipitation and storm events. “The trend overall has been to be, on an annual basis, wetter than what we’ve had in the past, that’s the trend,” Kluck says. “It doesn’t mean we can’t go into drought, but the trend line is definitely on a pretty upward slope. It’s pretty obvious from the data that we collect.”

The first flood outlooks for the region released earlier this month predict major flooding is likely in most of the region’s river basins, including the Mississippi and Missouri.