We haven’t seen much sunshine lately in the past few days, but that hasn’t stopped temperatures from making it into the mid to upper 30′s this past week.  This recent thaw has done numbers to decrease the dirty and ugly looking snow pack that still covers the area.  More snow is expected to fall next week which could help replenish some of the melted snow.  This extra snow is not good news as flood concerns grow with spring rapidly approaching.  On Thursday March 3rd, the National Weather Service in Lacrosse issued its latest spring snowmelt flood outlook.

Flooding is likely along the Mississippi, Red, and Minnesota Rivers due to the large amounts of snowfall seen this past winter.  Local flooding is also possible  throughout southeast Minnesota, but a lot of that is dependent on how the remainder of the winter pans out.  If a couple of larger storms impact the area during the thaw period, localized flooding will become a greater concern.

We are currently watching a larger storm that has a ton of moisture with it. It is still too early to say to just how much snow we will get out of this upcoming storm because the track is still uncertain.  The track means everything in the amount of snow we will see and what type it will fall in.  This storm has the potential to bring another good plowable snow Tuesday night and into Wednesday, and if it does it will not help the upcoming flooding concerns.

Posted under flooding, KTTC, minnesota, Natural Disaster, rainfall, Rochester, snowfall amounts, spring, winter, winter weather

NASA scientists have done the math, and it appears that the Chilean 8.8 earthquake may have shortened Earth’s days. Even more impressively, it also appears to have shifted the Earth’s axis.

For more from NASA, read more here.

Posted under Astronomy, KTTC, Natural Disaster

Whether or not the Red River at Fargo will continue it’s slowly sinking heights remains to be seen, but early Saturday morning, an all-time record was set: 40.82′. It’s down to 40.45′ as of 8:30 p.m. here on Saturday, and we’re hoping the downward trend, however slow it is, continues. Whatever factor the next round of snow plays, and how fast it melts, could play a bad hand of cards.

At Grand Forks, the river has been dipping ever so slightly this afternoon. Saturday morning it peaked at 48.27′ and it now at 48.25′ (8:30 p.m. Saturday). However, forecasters are still expecting a stage of 51′-ish by Thursday.

Obviously, this isn’t over yet, even if the water is starting to recede in Fargo. It’ll take several days for this massive wall of water to come down…anywhere along the river. And not just there, but other places in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, central Minnesota, too.

For more on the flooding, you can check out KTTC.com.

Posted under Natural Disaster

The Fargo area is now experiencing the worst flooding ever recorded.

The latest river stage now stands at 40.78′ (9:15 p.m. CDT, Friday)…and it’s still rising. The record was 40.1′ set back in 1897. Now the question is…how high will it go? Forecasters are saying it could crest as high as 43′. A scary thought, considering that, according to officials, Fargo’s main dike protects the city to 43′.

The Red River at East Grand Forks is on track to crest close to an all-time record flood stage as well…although it’s (right now) looking like it will come up a bit short, probably some relief for weary residents. The stage was 48.14′ (9:30 p.m. CDT Friday) and it’s forecasted to crest around 52′. The record stage is 54.4′ in 1997.

If you’re curious if that means there’s a wall of water close to 42′ in Fargo…not quite. Read this for the AP wire:

CHANHASSEN, Minn. (AP) — A Red River crest of 43 feet at Fargo, N.D., doesn’t mean the river will be 43 feet deep.
   And dikes built to protect the city to 43 feet aren’t 43 feet high.
   The numbers hydrologists use to measure river levels and flood stages and to predict crest levels are just reference points. Diane Cooper, a National Weather Service hydrologist, says they often put the zero point below the river bed.
   So when officials say Fargo’s dikes are good to 43 feet, it just means they’re at the same height the river would be when it reaches the 43-foot mark at the gauge in Fargo.
   Cooper also says you can’t compare the numbers from one river gauge to another. For example, the Red River was measured at 41 feet in Fargo on Friday afternoon and 48 feet downstream in Grand Forks. That doesn’t mean the water’s deeper in Grand Forks.

We’ll be continuing to follow this…

Posted under Natural Disaster

By the time you read this Friday morning, the Red River at Fargo will have set a new all-time record crest. The top 3 flood events at the Fargo gauge are…

1) 40.1′ on 4/7/1897
2) 39.57′ on 4/17/1997
3) 37.8′ on 4/11/1882

Check out the flood level and forecast level for the Red River at Fargo gauge here.

Posted under Natural Disaster

Yesterday, Steph posted some very useful links for you to find information on rising Red River levels.

Another useful tool for regular updates on the flood is twitter. Search out #fargoflood and #flood09 on twitter and you’ll get some firsthand perspectives from folks on the spot and many various links to photos and information regarding this year’s flood…one that is looking to be record-setting.

You can also follow Steph and I on twitter. Just click on the links on the left sidebar of this blog.

Posted under Natural Disaster

…and it’s still so easy to see the scar.  Click for the full story on the Wisconsin tornadoes of June 7, 2007.

Posted under Natural Disaster, severe weather

While there will continue to be some icy spots on area roadways tonight due to a continued light mix of wintry precipitation, all advisories in our local area have been let to expire.  Temperatures tonight will wander very close to the freezing mark, and highs Wednesday will be back above freezing.  Wednesday will continue to be cloudy with light sleet, rain, and snow possible through the day, but as this storm system spins out to the east it will lose its grip on southern Minnesota and north Iowa.

68 years ago today, one of the most legendary storms in our regional weather history swept across the Midwest.  154 people lost their lives in the Armistice Day Storm of 1940, an intense storm that brought about a rapid change in the weather from a warm morning to a bitterly cold and windy evening with blizzard conditions throughout much of Minnesota.  More on the Armistice Day Blizzard from wikipedia.

Posted under KTTC, Natural Disaster, weather

The Full Harvest Moon was today (4:14am in Rochester, MN), and we’ll still get a nice view tonight.  Moon rise this evening for Rochester, MN is 7:14pm CDT.  Check sun and moon data for your location here.

In honor of today’s harvest moon. 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE-XN9z2Zu4]

In the wake of Hurricane Ike (now tropical depression Ike), KTRK out of Houston is still streaming live on the web.  For those interested…

Posted under Astronomy, Farming, Natural Disaster, Rochester, weather

The Galveston/Houston area is bracing for Ike tonight, and the worst of the storm looks to be the storm surge.  For those interested in keeping a close eye on what’s happening down there, here are a few links.

You can follow Rick Sanchez of CNN on twitter.com at http://twitter.com/ricksanchezcnn He’s updating regularly.

For those of you with DirecTV, you can watch KHOU’s live coverage on channel 361.

Watch all the local Houston stations streaming live on one site… http://www.maroonspoon.com/wx/ike.html

Webcams in the Houston area.  Scroll the map on the right side of the browser to move toward Galveston.
http://www.weatherbonk.com/weather/webcams.jsp?where=houston%2C+tx

Official track and forecast info for Ike
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/graphics_at4.shtml?5day#contents

Posted under Natural Disaster, severe weather