Above-Average Runoff Forecast For Missouri River

Bad memories of 2019 along the Missouri River could come flooding back as early as this spring. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is warning that runoff along the river could rank as the ten highest. Basin Water Management Chief John Remus…

Flooding plagued the river basin last year as runoff totaled 60.9 million-acre feet, just shy of the record set in 2011. That runoff flooded bottom ground along the Missouri River and busted through levees, with adequate repairs on some still incomplete. Corps civil engineer Kevin Grode warns that the upper basin faces similar conditions this year…

Grode says the forecast will depend on snow accumulation this winter. Plains snowpack levels are higher than this time last year, while mountain snowpack levels are slightly below average. However, the mountain snowpack doesn’t generally peak until mid-April.