Every spring the National Weather Service (NWS) prepares a series of flood outlooks for the potential of river flooding as a result of snow pack melt.
According to the NWS in La Crosse, the overall flood risk for the Upper Mississippi River Basin is near to slightly above normal.
Overall, the amount of water currently moving through our rivers is near the long-term average. Due to drought, rivers were flowing well-below normal this past fall prior to winter so they should still have a little extra room to absorb runoff this spring.
Thanks to an early snowpack, frost depths are much more shallow than normal due to above-normal temperatures
The next spring flood outlook release will be on February 23rd.