Fresh off of a record setting winter where we received a record 78.7 inches of snow. The Tri-State area is now breaking spring rainfall totals. Dubuque, IA has doubled it’s normal rainfall amount for the spring and matched with the earlier snow melt off, it is causing major problems.
Agriculture, Construction and Emergency Services have all been getting crunched with this warm variety of severe weather this spring. Like last winters snowfall stats; these too have been staggering:
Some areas of the Tri-States have received more than 12 inches of rain so far in June. The normal amount for the entire month is 1.82 inches. Most rivers in the area have peaked at levels never seen before. Neighboring Grant County was in a state of emergency yesterday as a deluge of rain washed cars off of roads, which included three small tornado’s. A section of I-80 in Iowa has closed and traffic has been rerouted through Dubuque causing traffic jams. The local radio stations storm warning has become commonplace now hindering on monotony.
“We’re basically in uncharted waters,” said Steve Kuhl, meteorologist in charge at the Quad Cities office of the National Weather Service. “It is unprecedented. We have never seen these river levels. We have our models that help us with our river forecasts, but since this has never happened before, we are adjusting those on the fly.” The Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, IA was expected to crest at nearly 32 feet, an astonishing 12 feet higher than the old record, set in 1929. The drenching has also severely damaged the corn crop in the Midwest at a time when corn prices are soaring.
On the prairie front, we are seeing rapid weed growth and robust plant sizes. Our dry prairies are showing that moisture tolerant species are dominating and drier species are in decline. Plants never seen in areas before, such as Angelica (Angelica atropurpurea) have made unannounced appearances. It has also been a good opportunity to recognize the over efficiency of our storm water removal systems and the need to install rain gardens, bio-swales, permeable paving and to utilize native plants on slopes…
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