LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Local flooding remains a threat along the Platte River in Nebraska, a hydrologist says, although the danger has ebbed.
David Pearson with the National Weather Service told the Lincoln Journal Star (https://bit.ly/1pszGv1 ) that tons of ice made it through the Ashland and Louisville areas over the weekend. That reduces the possibility of ice jams and backed-up water.
“We’re certainly in a better spot than we were a week ago, but we’re not totally out of the woods, yet,” said Pearson, who works in the weather service office in Valley, near Omaha. But there’s enough ice upstream from the U.S. 6 bridge near Ashland to create problems under the right conditions, he said.
There has been flooding elsewhere in the state. Lowland flooding - but no property damage - was reported last weekend near North Bend and Schuyler areas as ice moved out of the Loup and Platte rivers.
In western Nebraska, ice jams have caused minor flooding along the North Platte River near North Platte, according to the National Weather Service.
Pearson said the spring flooding threat for eastern Nebraska is below normal primarily because there’s not much snow on the ground and hasn’t been.
But stretches of below-normal temperatures have frozen the ground down 2 feet in many spots. If more snow falls in the coming weeks, followed by a quick thaw, runoff would flow into streams and then rivers.
Heavy rain, too, would not be able to percolate into the frozen ground, thus raising stream and river levels.
The federal Climate Prediction Center says there is an equal chance for below-, near- and above-normal precipitation and temperatures through May.
The snowpack in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming, which provides most of the Platte River water in Nebraska, is running about 125 percent of normal.
“It’s shaping up to be a very good runoff year for snowmelt,” said the Nebraska climatologist, Al Dutcher.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com
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