The U-S Army Corps of Engineers predicts several waterways in Iowa and elsewhere will flood this spring, based on current snowpack conditions in the Missouri River basin. Hydrologist Kevin Low, in the Corps’ Omaha office, says the upper basin snowpack varies. “The Upper Missouri above Fort Peck is below average, the Yellowstone is above average and both North and South Platte headwaters have above-average snowpack,” Low says. “By this point in the winter, we’d normally have went through a bit over 60% of the seasonal peak snow-water accumulation period, so being over halfway, we still could see significant changes with this mountain snowpack.”

Low says with the condition of the current snowpack, rivers in the region will go over their banks this spring in Iowa, Nebraska, Montana and the Dakotas, and the list includes: “The Floyd, Big Sioux and Little Sioux basins in Iowa,” he says.

There has already been some flooding of tributaries due to ice jams. “No significant impacts have been reported to date in connection with these ice jams,” Low says. “Ice jamming is not uncommon in the Missouri basin and we will continue to monitor the rivers for its continued occurrence as we move later into the winter and early spring.”

The Corps’ forecast includes above-average run-off into the Missouri River basin for February, March and April.

(Radio Iowa)