***Official Weather Thread 6/25-6/26***

[ZJohnson]

Last 7 day total not including tonight: Precipitation Analysis Pages

My hometown and home golf course are f'ed. My dad has been bailing, pumping and drying our basement all week, and with tonight's rain there is no end in sight. Insane to me, especially since the closest river is 6 miles out of town.

[Psyclone Brian]

I really don't think it's gonna miss us now.

[KneeGusto]

This looks ugly.... again

[theshadow]

River levels and projections starting to get interesting.

Des Moines River
Algona - projected crest 18.3ft
1993 - 18.83ft; 2008 - 18.90ft

Humboldt - projected crest 14.4ft
1993 - 15.22ft; 2008 - 10.87ft

Fort Dodge - projected crest 17.4 ft
1993 - 16.47ft; 2008 - 16.39ft

Stratford - projected crest 26.4 ft
1993 - 25.68ft; 2008 - 27.32ft

[Iastfan112]

Last 7 day total not including tonight: Precipitation Analysis Pages

My hometown and home golf course are f'ed. My dad has been bailing, pumping and drying our basement all week, and with tonight's rain there is no end in sight. Insane to me, especially since the closest river is 6 miles out of town.

Including tonight, over the past 2 weeks we've had 15 inches in my area. Just have been inundated in the Humboldt, Wright, northern Webster County area. Thankfully tonight's storm lost some of the oomph it had in the Cherokee area.

[Cyclonepride]

Been sitting in my basement since 4:30, waiting to see if water comes in again. I spent some time yesterday sloping the egress window well away from the house by digging it out. So far, so good because it was raining like hell, but didn't make it in.

I'm considering digging the outside 1' out about 12" deep and filling that with sand to help it soak in faster just to be sure. Not sure if that will really help, but right now it is clay, and water stands in there for quite a while.

[Cardinal&Gold11]

Does anyone know how the rivers are looking in Ames at all?

[theshadow]

Does anyone know how the rivers are looking in Ames at all?

Nothing serious.

Stuart Smith Park will get wet. South 4th should stay dry.

South 16th towards Dayton, and the Hunziker Sports Complex will get wet.

[isuno1fan]

Rained like heck in Clive last night. Friggin lake in my backyard.

[cyclone83]

I see Saylorville is going over the emergency spillway later this week. That should throw a wrench in the new road construction they are doing that will cross the gorge. Since there is no precip forecast for this week that should allow the raccoon and major creeks like Beaver creek to go down before the emergency spillway deluge hits Des Moines.

Does anyone know why the Corps of Engineers kept the lake pool 20 feet over normal in late May and early June when they could have lowered it significantly? They had the outflow down to about 5,000 cfs and were only dropping the lake level by about a half a foot a day when we had some dry days a few weeks ago. I think an extra 10 feet of storage could have been used going into this week.

[bellzisu]

I see Saylorville is going over the emergency spillway later this week. That should throw a wrench in the new road construction they are doing that will cross the gorge. Since there is no precip forecast for this week that should allow the raccoon and major creeks like Beaver creek to go down before the emergency spillway deluge hits Des Moines.

Does anyone know why the Corps of Engineers kept the lake pool 20 feet over normal in late May and early June when they could have lowered it significantly? They had the outflow down to about 5,000 cfs and were only dropping the lake level by about a half a foot a day when we had some dry days a few weeks ago. I think an extra 10 feet of storage could have been used going into this week.

When did they announce that???

Nevermind.. Just found this...

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/97265934.html

[ISUAgronomist]

When did they announce that???

Flood Forecast: Saylorville To Top Emergency Spillway - Des Moines News Story - KCCI Des Moines

[FDWxMan]

Does anyone know why the Corps of Engineers kept the lake pool 20 feet over normal in late May and early June when they could have lowered it significantly? They had the outflow down to about 5,000 cfs and were only dropping the lake level by about a half a foot a day when we had some dry days a few weeks ago. I think an extra 10 feet of storage could have been used going into this week.

Can't say definitively, but I would feel pretty confident in guessing that it was because southern Iowa had a very wet May. I doubt the rivers downstream were in nearly as good of shape to handle the extra flow.

May was very dry in the north, but quite wet over the southern couple tiers of counties.

[chuckd4735]

I see Saylorville is going over the emergency spillway later this week. That should throw a wrench in the new road construction they are doing that will cross the gorge. Since there is no precip forecast for this week that should allow the raccoon and major creeks like Beaver creek to go down before the emergency spillway deluge hits Des Moines.

Does anyone know why the Corps of Engineers kept the lake pool 20 feet over normal in late May and early June when they could have lowered it significantly? They had the outflow down to about 5,000 cfs and were only dropping the lake level by about a half a foot a day when we had some dry days a few weeks ago. I think an extra 10 feet of storage could have been used going into this week.

It is forecasted to go into the spillway, but not over.

The reason they were not releasing much water at Saylorville was because of the amount of rain areas got downstream. Same thing has been going for all the locks on the Mississippi, they have all been holding a lot of water back this past month to try and control levels downstream...

[Wesley]

Flood Forecast: Saylorville To Top Emergency Spillway - Des Moines News Story - KCCI Des Moines

If it goes over spillway, that is bad. The repairs can be enormous.