After the massive Missouri River flooding of 2011, plans were made to install a better system for monitoring heavy rain and run-off from snowpack to more accurately predict pending floods. Jody Farhat, Omaha division chief of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, says a better, real-time reporting system was designed — but still hasn’t been built.

“There was authorization in 2014 to install a monitoring system for those aspects, the soil moisture and the snowpack,” Farhat says. “That has not been funded at this time but we’re hoping to get started on the process this year.” Farhat says other improvements have been made to the reporting system in the past six years. “We are working much more closely with the states and we also have set up a network of observers to give us snowpack measurements during the winter,” Farhat says. “We are getting better information this year that’s being fed into the NOAA products. I do think we have a better handle on it than we did in 2011.”

Farhat says despite above-normal snowpack this winter, it doesn’t compare to that of 2011. “Even though we have an area of high plains snowpack right now in North Dakota and in north-central South Dakota, it’s smaller in area and extent than it was in 2011 at the peak and it peaked in late February in 2011. Also, the mountain snowpack is tracking pretty close to normal.”

The Corps is predicting above-normal run-off into the Missouri River reservoir system for February through April. Farhat says they have “adequate” flood storage available behind the six mainstream dams.

(Radio Iowa)

Early This Morning: Clear. Southwest wind near 5 mph.
Today: Sunny. High in the lower 50s. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear. Low in the upper 20s. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tuesday: Sunny. High in the upper 40s. Northwest wind 5 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.
Wednesday: Sunny. High in the lower 40s. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday: Sunny, warmer. High in the mid 50s.

Today: Sunny, with a high near 44. Breezy, with a northwest wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 22. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 47. Light south southwest wind becoming southwest 5 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 25. Southwest wind around 10 mph becoming west northwest after midnight.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 46. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 23.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 40.

Today: Mostly Cloudy. High 48. N/NE @ 10-15.

Tonight: Mo. Cldy w/a 30% chance of light rain or snow. Low 32. NW @ 10-20.

Tomorrow: Becoming Mostly Sunny. High 41. NW @ 10-20.

Tom. Night: Mostly clear. Low 24.

Monday: Partly Sunny. High 47

Tuesday: Mo. Sunny. High 45.

Wednesday: P/Cldy. High 41.

Friday’s High in Atlantic was 56. Our Low this morning was 30.Last year on this date, our High in Atlantic was 22 and the low was 11. The Record High in Atlantic on this date was 64 in 1951 & 1999. The Record Low was -26 in 1899.

Today: Partly Cloudy & windy. High 52. SW @ 15-30.

Tonight: P/Cldy to Cldy. Low 33. NW @ 5-10.

Tomorrow: Cloudy. High 47. NE @ 10.

Sunday: Cloudy w/flurries or sprinkles in the morning; P/Sunny in the afternoon. High 40

Monday: P/Cloudy. High 47.

Thursday’s (daytime) High in Atlantic was 23. Our 24-Hour High (7-a.m. Thursday through 7-a.m. today) was 31. Our 24-hour Low was 8. Last year on this date, our High in Atlantic was 32 and the low was 9. The Record High in Atlantic on this date was 72 in 1999. The Record Low was -24 in 1905.

Early this morning: Partly cloudy. Not as cold. Low in the lower 20s. South wind 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.
Today: Mostly sunny. Much warmer. High in the mid 50s. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.
Tonight: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Not as cold. Low in the lower 30s. West wind near 10 mph shifting to the north after midnight.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy. High around 50. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night: Cloudy. A 20 percent chance of light rain and snow after midnight. Low in the lower 30s. North wind 5 to 15 mph.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. Breezy. High in the lower 40s.
Monday: Mostly sunny. High in the mid 40s.

Today: Partly Cloudy. High 26. Winds variable @ 5-10.

Tonight: P/Cldy. Low 22. S @ 5-10.

Tomorrow: P/Cloudy & windy.  High 52. SW @ 15-30.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy. High 45

Sunday: Cloudy w/a chance of light rain or snow. High 38.

Wednesday’s High in Atlantic was 18. Our 24-hour Low (ending at 7-a.m. today) was 3. We received 2.1” of snow after 7-a.m. Wednesday, for a storm total of 4.6-inches. Last year on this date, our High in Atlantic was 20 and the low was 6. The Record High in Atlantic on this date was 59 in 1954, 2000 and 2009. The Record Low was -36 in 1975.

Early this morning: Partly cloudy. Colder. Low zero to 5 above. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday: Partly sunny. High in the mid 20s. North wind near 5 mph shifting to the south in the afternoon.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy. Not as cold. Low in the lower 20s. South wind 10 to 15 mph.
Friday: Mostly sunny. Much warmer. High in the mid 50s. Southwest wind 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy through midnight then becoming mostly cloudy. Not as cold. Low in the mid 30s. West wind 5 to 10 mph shifting to the north after midnight.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy. High in the lower 50s.
Saturday Night: Cloudy. A slight chance of light rain through midnight, then a chance of light snow possibly mixed with rain after midnight. Low in the lower 30s. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy. High in the lower 40s.

(Updated 11-a.m.) The Winter Weather Advisory for snow that was in effect until Noon today (Wed.), for Monona, Harrison, Shelby, Audubon, Crawford, Carroll, Cass and Pottawattamie Counties, has been cancelled. The Advisory remains in effect until Noon for Guthrie, Adair and Dallas Counties.

The foggy days we saw in January could be an indication of the type of weather farmers ace this spring. Iowa State University Extension Climatologist Elwynn Taylor says it may be folklore, but there is some reasonable evidence to think it will be a wet one. “The folklore message is ‘if you have fog in January, you are going to have a wet planting season.’ Or some people say, 90 or 100 days later it’s going to be awfully wet,” Taylor says. “There is some fact behind that because — why would the fog come in — we’ve started to get the flow from the Gulf of Mexico, which is what brings us our moisture.”

He says this year fits the pattern that can give us a wet spring. “It doesn’t mean we always will, but that was the first point we looked at. Be ready for it to be on the wet side of usual at planting time,” he says. While a wet spring is a possibility, Taylor says another better than average yield is also a possibility.

“That is a distinct possibility — now of course everyone who has farmed in the Midwest knows for many years knows that it’s rare to go more than two or three years with above trend-line yield,” Taylor says. “This would be the fourth year. But it does happen. IN fact, five isn’t an unheard of number of years for staying above trend before it dips back below.”

(Radio Iowa)