Weather Market Futures

Sep 10, 2010

‘Historic Flooding’ Possible in U.S., NOAA Says

Mar 16, 2010

By Brian K. Sullivan

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- One-third of the U.S. faces the possibility of “historic flooding” in coming weeks, especially the upper Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa, government forecasters said.

“Once again we are delivering an urgent message to get ready,” John Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, said in a conference call today. “The flood risk is above- average over one-third of the country.”

The flood potential is driven in part by El Nino, a warming in the Pacific Ocean, which steered storms that have left the ground saturated from record rains and heavy snows. The area designated for above-average risk stretches from New Mexico in the west to Maine in the east, federal maps show.

“We are looking at potentially historic flooding in some parts of the country this spring,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in the conference call.

Climate change is also being blamed for a long-term trend toward severe flooding, according to an Interagency Climate Change Task Force report issued today.

Climate Change Implicated

“The task force has found that climate change is affecting, and will continue to affect, nearly every aspect of our society and the environment,” according to the report issued jointly by NOAA and the White House’s Science and Technology Office and Council on Environmental Quality.

Many areas of the eastern U.S. have received twice the normal amount of rain in the past three months, said Tom Graziano, a weather service hydrologist.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri, a Republican, declared emergencies in their states yesterday after a four-day rainstorm.

Floodwaters washed out a section of the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority’s Green Line light rail system in Newton, according to the authority’s Web site. In Rhode Island, the Pawtuxet River reached a record crest yesterday in Cranston, the weather service said.

The outlook for the two states should improve because there won’t be any rain for the rest of the week, said Charlie Foley, a weather service meteorologist in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Sandbags Distributed

In Fargo, North Dakota, where residents are facing an unprecedented second consecutive year of record flooding, sandbags are being stacked to hold back the Red River of the North and at least two bridges in the state’s largest city have been closed.

“We have over 110 years of records in the Red River valley in North Dakota and Minnesota and we have never seen back-to- back significant, near-record spring floods in consecutive years,” said Scott Dummer, a weather service hydrologist.

About 1,200 high school and middle school students in Fargo and surrounding towns joined crews in building sandbag walls to keep back water, according to an e-mailed statement from Karena Carlson, a city spokeswoman. The city has filled 850,000 sandbags and expects to meet its goal of 1 million by tomorrow, she said.

Last year, the Red River, which flows north into Canada, spent a record 61 days above flood stage and crested at a new high of 40.82 feet, according to the weather service. The river also disrupted planting in North Dakota, the nation’s largest wheat producer.

Forecasters don’t know yet if this year’s crops will be delayed, Dummer said. It will depend on whether rain follows the melting of the snow pack.

“If we luck out and get into a dry spell here, we might be able to get into the fields on time or not too far behind schedule,” Dummer said. “However, if the rains start coming like they did a year ago, that would definitely put us in the same situation as last year.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net.