The Missouri River at Omaha.
There’s still minor flooding on the Mississippi River in parts of eastern Iowa but it should be smooth sailing on the state’s opposite border with the Missouri River.
Climatologist Doug Kluck, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Kansas City, says even with the heavy melting of mountain snowpack, most upstream rivers have already crested.
“The tributaries have reached their peaks and now the major reservoirs are okay in terms of holding or handling that runoff,” Kluck says. “There will be substantial above-normal flows in the river for some time as that floodwater gets evened out over the season.” Kluck says there could be some spots along the Missouri River in Iowa and Nebraska that -do- get high water.
“There’s no indication of major issues on the Missouri River,” Kluck says. “Now, on the lower part of the basin where you get those big convective storms sometimes, you can always have tributary flooding. That happens.” Kevin Low, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, says he doesn’t see any likely flooding issues on the Missouri.
“For the most part, we have a statistically below-average chance for flooding at most locations simply because of the dry conditions,” Low says. Releases from Gavins Point Dam have been increased to help move the snowpack runoff.
(By Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton)