A research project being planned by the Iowa Flood Center could lead to earlier and more accurate flood predictions.
Spencer City Manager Kevin Robinson says Spencer has been invited to participate. Rutgers University and NASA would also be involved. “Flood predictability right now is focused on rainfall primarily, so you look at where it’s going to rain, you look at the impact on the watersheds and then you figure out what the flood potential impact in different community is,” Robinson said. “This study will actually move it up the chain to cloud saturation.”
And that’s in NASA’s wheelhouse. “The NASA component of this is NASA has the ability to monitor cloud densities,” Robinson said, “cloud saturation of water.”
Robinson said the Iowa Flood Center researchers believe that could give communities an extra 24 to 36 hours of advance warning of potential flooding. “If you look at the rain event that happened to Spencer, Iowa, and northwest Iowa in 2024, that event originated over the Rocky Mountains…The Flood Center would be able to tell by the cloud saturation over the Rockies different scenarios in which and how much rain would fall in the watersheds in the Midwest, so it’s an exciting project,” Robinson said. “The Flood Center will know in a couple of months if it gets funded.”
Robinson said new flood sensors are being installed on northwest Iowa rivers with funding from a Community Development Block Grant.
(Reporting by Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)