Flooding To Come?
Mar 20, 2009
Well, here we go again. I just hung up the phone with
Planalytics meteorologists Fred Gesser and he says the forecast rains for next week will bring Midwest rivers to flood stage.
He says flooding on the Red River in Minnesota and the Dakotas is a given at this point, and it’s likely across much of the Mississippi and Illinois valleys. We’ll likely see that flooding then back up to the West and the Missouri will breach it’s banks form North Dakota to near Omaha.
“By Saturday the 28th of March, we’ll see 3-6 inches of rain across the middle Mississippi Valley and the Illinois Valley. There are 17 gages in the Mississippi at or near flood stage. With the rains coming we’ll see moderate to severe flooding.”
Gesser believes the flooding could become severe enough next week that barge traffic on the Mississippi River will come to a halt.
Gesser will present his planting season forecast during a Top Producer Webinar next Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. CT. (
Click here for free registration) What Gesser sees right now doesn’t look good for farmers who want to be in a hurry to get into the field and avoid flooding events this spring.
“We’re at the point where every spring event this year could cause flooding,” he says. “Right now we need two to three weeks of dry weather to keep that from happening, and I don’t see it.”
