Northwest Iowa faces potential for flooding

More rain this weekend will be bad news for northwestern Iowa. Mike Gillispie is a hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He’s looking at the likelihood that flooding will return over the next five days to the area, between now and Monday. Gillispie says computer models are painting a picture that includes plenty of rain, and the saturated ground cannot hold any more water. He says there’s likely to be two to 3 inches total from fairly widespread rains beginning today and going through Monday. If the rainfall amounts forecast are accurate, he says the rain will become a runoff problem — and flooding is possible in several areas of northwest Iowa. Gillispie sees the chance for flooding on the Upper Floyd and Little Sioux rivers, though it’ll just hit flood stage on the former and be only a foot or two above flood stage on the Little Sioux around Spencer. He adds the Little Sioux near Linn Grove in Buena Vista County could get a foot or two above flood stage as well.