Havent heard anything on the levels of the Mississippi River above La Crosse. With all the snow (and recent rain) that we got in Wisconsin and Minnesota, what is the level of the River and what is the projected crest? Will there be any flooding to cause any detours?
Paul
I live in the far northern suburbs of Minneapolis and I’ve not heard anything about flooding predictions. WCCO and KMSP are usually the biggest weather doom-criers and they’ve not said anything about the Mississippi River or flooding in general that I’ve heard.
The water levels are high(normal this time of the year) on the Mississippi, but CP and BNSF are in good shape. Lake Pepin(wide spot between Red Wing and Wabasha) was finally opened up to navigation. A tow made it through the ice on Lake Pepin last week. This is the latest the navigation channel has been frozen closed in many years. Unless we see non-stop rain saturate the ground, flooding should be minimal. The deep frost in the ground is gone, so the run-off is now limited.
Jim
Twin Cities area did not get a lot of snow. I think S.E Mn and northern Mn got a lot more snow than we did.
The upper Mississippi shouldn’t pose any problems this year although I do wonder about some of the smaller rivers and streams dumping into it in SW Wisconsin, SE Minnesota, and my native NE Iowa.
The river forecasts for the near future can be found at:
http://www.riverwatch.noaa.gov/forecasts/MPXRVAMPX.shtml
They show that the Mississippi is high but forecast to remain at least 5 feet below flood stage.
Passed along the CP line between Hastings, MN and LaCrosse, WI last week and the water is high – flooding some of the low lands – but not over any of its banks and no where near the tracks. We could get rain (it is raining in Southeastern Minnesota on Friday) and bring the rivers up, but so far precipitation has been near or below normal.
Southern Illinois, Missouri, etc are at flood stage on the Mississippi. See: http://www.riverwatch.noaa.gov/forecasts/ORNRVAORN.shtml
They are shown cresting this week in many places so there should be little or no impact on the rails. That’s assuming the earthquakes don’t bend the rail.