(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says state officials have been working with local emergency management coordinators to prepare for another round of flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers this spring. “We want to make sure the line of communication is clear so that if we have, especially, an evac order — we didn’t have a lot of time with this last go-round — and so we want to make sure that all of the procedures are in place.”

National Weather Service forecasts describe the flood threat along the western Iowa border south of Sioux City as “grim” and, in eastern Iowa, there’s a 95 percent probability of flooding along the Mississippi. Last week, Governor Reynolds approved 21 million dollars in state funding for a variety of flood-related projects around the state. Most of the federally-owned MISSOURI River levees that were damaged last spring have been repaired, according to Reynolds. “I think they’re up to about a 25 or 50 years flood, so not near where they need to be,” Reynolds says, “but we’re trying to do everything we can to be in the best possible position to be ready for this spring.”

Reynolds says the Army Corps of Engineers has begun increasing the amount of water that’s being released in the Missouri River from reservoirs upstream — to hold SOME of the melting snow that’s expected in the river basin. “And on the Mississippi we’re already five feet above where we should be, so we’re just continuing to put procedures in place to be ready,” Reynolds says.

National Weather Service hydrologists say snow pack in Minnesota and Wisconsin is heavier than a year ago — adding to the flood risk downstream. Last month, there was a flash flood in a Minneapolis suburb was caused by ice pack breaking up on the Mississippi River. This weekend, the National Weather Service in OMAHA issued a flood warning along the Platte River south of Fremont. The Platte drains into the Missouri River just south of Omaha.

(Radio Iowa) — As spring approaches, forecasters say Iowa’s in for some rollercoaster temperatures. While many of us enjoyed high temps in the mid 40s over the weekend, it’s back to winter today (Monday) with ice, sleet and snow. Meteorologist Kenny Podrazik, at the National Weather Service in metro Des Moines, says the northern few tiers of counties will see rain change over to snow this morning and this afternoon. “Anywhere from Algona, Estherville, Mason City, even as far east as Decorah, that whole area is going to see a decent amount of snow,” Podrazik says, “and there’s certainly the potential for a light glaze of ice as well.”

Parts of the region could get up to a half-foot of new flakes. “Estherville and Algona could see one-to-two inches of snow,” Podrazik says. “The further east you go, you could see higher amounts, like two-to-four in Mason City, and northeast portions of Iowa could see three-to-six or four-to-six inches of snowfall by later today.” Twenty-five counties across Iowa’s northern third are under a Winter Weather Advisory and where ice is accumulating, driving will quickly become hazardous. The forecast calls for a big dip into colder weather this week and another significant warm-up by the weekend.

“We could see some subzero temperatures Wednesday night into Thursday morning,” Podrazik says. “Then, by Saturday and Sunday, we’ll be back into the mid- or upper-40s and certainly couldn’t rule out a couple of spots topping 50 degrees on one of those days.” Spring will arrive in a little over a month on March 19th.