US weather: States reel from historic floods as fresh snow threatens parts of the midwest

A “bomb cyclone” storm caused severe flooding in the Midwest

A flooded farm in Nebrask (AFP/Getty )

Record floods that submerged parts of three Midwestern states have started retreating, but more inclement weather continues to threaten Montana and the Dakotas for weeks to come.

Icy tributaries in those regions carry a risk of future flooding. High flood waters have already returned in the western Dakotas, northwest Nebraska and central and eastern Montana, along smaller rivers that feed into the Missouri.

Once the weather warms up, river ice breaks up into giant chunks, which float down the river stream and can cause a jam, which in turn induces flooding, David Roth, a meteorologist with the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, told Reuters on Monday.

“All that backed-up water is eventually going downstream,” Roth said. “It’ll come down the Missouri in a couple of weeks, and maybe hit Kansas City in mid-April.”

Midwest floods were unleashed last week after a “bomb cyclone” storm dumped torrential rains on hundreds of square miles of the snow-covered Plains.

At least four people died as record flows cascaded down the Missouri, the country’s longest river. The floods also killed livestock, closed down dozens of roads, and caused property losses estimated at more than $3bn in Nebraska and Iowa.

Those flood waters crested near Kansas City on Sunday, the weather service said.

No further precipitation is forecast for the Midwest until midweek, when moderate rainfall is expected, NWS’s Andrew Orrison said on Sunday.

“I think at the worst what it will do is just prolong the gradual receding of the water levels across the various river basins throughout the Midwest,” he said.

The current flooding threatens Kansas City’s drinking water. More than 600,000 customers in the Kansas City metropolitan area were asked to conserve water as flood-levels in the Missouri River created “treatment challenges,” the city’s water utility said on Sunday.

Far up the nation’s longest river, floods loom again.

The Billings Gazette reported late on Sunday that rapid snow melt drove ice jams on the Little Bighorn River, forced the shutdown of a stretches of major highways in eastern Montanta all the way to the Wyoming border.

But the bigger threat is warmer temperatures that will hit the upper 60s in Billings by Tuesday and into midweek, driving more snowmelt that will eventually flow south, said meteorologist Roth.

“All that water is still headed downstream,” he said.

Follow the latest here

Additional reporting by agencies

[25 March 2019 16:34 · Clemence Michallon]

A home sits in flood water on 20 March, 2019 in Hamburg, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) 

[25 March 2019 16:46 · Clemence Michallon]

Floodwater surrounds a farm on 22 March, 2019 near Craig, Missouri. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) 

[25 March 2019 16:57 · Clemence Michallon]

Floodwater covers Highway 2 on 23 March, 2019 near Sidney, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) 

[25 March 2019 17:07 · Clemence Michallon]

Mud covers a street through downtown as flood waters begin to recede on 20 March, 2019 in Hamburg, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) 

[25 March 2019 17:29 · Clemence Michallon]

What is a bomb cyclone? Chelsea Ritschel explains: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/what-is-a-bomb-cyclone-bombogenesis-us-weather-storm-today-a8821151.html

[25 March 2019 17:49 · Clemence Michallon]

Flooding caused serious damage to this bridge near Fortescue, Missouri.

[25 March 2019 18:11 · Clemence Michallon]

Here is a map of the weather forecast, including risks of inclement weather:

[25 March 2019 18:29 · Clemence Michallon]

Record floods that submerged parts of three Midwestern states bringing death and destruction were retreating in Kansas City on Monday but icy tributaries in Montana and the Dakotas threatened more floods for weeks to come, the National Weather Service said.

(Reuters)

[25 March 2019 18:51 · Clemence Michallon]

High flood waters have already returned in the western Dakotas, northwest Nebraska and central and eastern Montana, along smaller rivers that feed into the Missouri, David Roth, a meteorologist with the NWS's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said on Monday.

(Reuters)

[25 March 2019 19:11 · Clemence Michallon]

Here are two maps showing how cold air will continue to affect the US: