2011 Flood

[tony]

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/305371/

Better than a 1 in 5 chance of being a record flood.

[TheBisonator]

I understand the urgent need to build a diversion in FM, and nobody's arguing that. But I find it perplexing that it seems like almost every third year we're expecting a record flood, when before 1997 a city-threatening flood seemed to happen not even once in a generation. Is FM getting waaaay more snow than average the past 10 years?? Could this be a sign of global climate change (I find the "warming" term ludicrous, since climate change effects more places in ways that are non-warming)?? Is this just something the region will have to deal with often now, that is 100+ inches of snow every winter??

I mean, I remember a few years ago, I remember the exact date. It was May 10, and the semester just ended. I looked out my apartment window and I saw SNOW. I remember the one April from a couple years ago where we had like 4 feet of snow that month. It was eerie. Is the climate in the region just changing??

(As I type this it's 37 degrees where I am, didn't even need to bring a jacket to school)

[tony]

It's probably the same reason Devils Lake is so high - lots and lots of precipitation, year after year after year.

[roadwarrior]

This area is definitely in a wet weather pattern. This isn't the first time this has happened, just the first we have been around to witness.

[TheBisonator]

It's probably the same reason Devils Lake is so high - lots and lots of precipitation, year after year after year.

Is there a way we can build a big hose connecting Devils lake to the Aral Sea and have a water transfer?? Would solve both place's problems.

[coldspot]

wasn't there something in the news a while ago about the ground in the lake agassiz basin rising back to its pre-glacial levels? anybody with a geology/hydrology background got anything in depth on that?

[lakesbison]

ah, hello, every house in southwest fargo (and the up center) is sitting in a freaking SLOUGH. this combined with every farmer from ortonville to breckenridge to wolverton levelling off their land to get the water off them quicker IS WHY.

its not rocket science people!

[tony]

ah, hello, every house in southwest fargo (and the up center) is sitting in a freaking SLOUGH. this combined with every farmer from ortonville to breckenridge to wolverton levelling off their land to get the water off them quicker IS WHY.

its not rocket science people!

Maybe you should stick to stuff you know about.

[CAS4127]

I understand the urgent need to build a diversion in FM, and nobody's arguing that. But I find it perplexing that it seems like almost every third year we're expecting a record flood, when before 1997 a city-threatening flood seemed to happen not even once in a generation. Is FM getting waaaay more snow than average the past 10 years?? Could this be a sign of global climate change (I find the "warming" term ludicrous, since climate change effects more places in ways that are non-warming)?? Is this just something the region will have to deal with often now, that is 100+ inches of snow every winter??

I mean, I remember a few years ago, I remember the exact date. It was May 10, and the semester just ended. I looked out my apartment window and I saw SNOW. I remember the one April from a couple years ago where we had like 4 feet of snow that month. It was eerie. Is the climate in the region just changing??

(As I type this it's 37 degrees where I am, didn't even need to bring a jacket to school)

We have had many years of extensive snowfall with no flooding. What we see now is extensive snowfall AND extensive farmland drainage. Have you guys been out in the country in the last 5 years and looked around. There are "legal drains" used to carry water from the fields to the Red, and many of those "drains" are damn near as big as the Sheyenne River diversion around Horace/West Fargo. You can't tell me those drains don't have a major impact on Red River flooding--huge volumes of water getting to the Red in way less time than ever before, and the drains continue to be built and/or deepened and widened--they call it "maintenance". Ya, right.

[bisonaudit]

wasn't there something in the news a while ago about the ground in the lake agassiz basin rising back to its pre-glacial levels? anybody with a geology/hydrology background got anything in depth on that?

Not an expert but my understanding is that unlike Great Britian where the highlands continue to get higher and London continues to sink, The Red River Valley isn't being effected by post-glacial rebound.