Flooding threat low heading into spring
Officials keep eye on ice jams
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/02/2018 (2226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The threat of widespread major spring flooding in southern Manitoba is low, but thicker-than-normal river ice could cause ice jams and flash flooding in some areas.
The province issued its first flood outlook of 2018 Friday, and the news was generally good.
A combination of relatively dry soils last fall and below-average snowfall this winter has given flood forecasters reason to feel positive.
“I’m happy to announce that there is reason for cautious optimism about the spring flood season,” Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler told a news conference at the province’s hydrologic forecast centre.
He was accompanied by Fisaha Unduche, Manitoba’s director of flood mitigation initiatives and water management.
The favourable forecast assumes normal precipitation levels for the remainder of the winter and early spring.
Schuler said the only red flag in the forecast is the fact river ice is 25 centimetres thicker than it was last year due to the cold weather and the relative absence of snow, which has an insulating effect. Ice in some areas is close to a metre thick.
Ice-jam mitigation work began Tuesday on the Red River. Crews already had broken up more than two kilometres of ice by Friday.
Assuming normal weather conditions, it is unlikely the Red River Floodway will need to be activated in the spring.
The Portage Diversion will be used only for ice control along the lower Assiniboine River, Schuler said.
The risk of major flooding is low for the Interlake region and most southern river basins, including the Red, Assiniboine, Souris and Qu’Appelle rivers. It is also low for all lakes including Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis and Dauphin Lake and the Whiteshell lakes.
The province’s next flood outlook will be issued at the end of March.
larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Larry Kusch
Legislature reporter
Larry Kusch didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until he attended a high school newspaper editor’s workshop in Regina in the summer of 1969 and listened to a university student speak glowingly about the journalism program at Carleton University in Ottawa.
History
Updated on Saturday, February 24, 2018 7:41 AM CST: Edited