Record flooding in Montana

[Mt Ski Bum]

These are all pics. from around my hometown in central Montana- this is the worst flooding recorded in probably 40+ years... all the roads in & out of Lewistown are either closed due to flooding or are highly questionable due to flooding. The East Fork Dam south of Lewistown has water flowing over its spillway for the first time since the dam was built alomst 40 years ago...

(broken link removed to http://www.lewistownnews.com/shared-content/gallery/?galleryid=13&gallery_page=0&album_page=0&albumid=18&mediaid=158)


A bit closer to my current place in Big Sky- here's some pics. of Greek Creek in Gallatin Canyon flowing over the highway about 20 miles away from my place due to a culvert under the highway getting blocked by debris from an upstream rock slide: (broken link removed to http://www.kbzk.com/news/flooding-disrupts-travel-on-highway-191-in-gallatin-canyon/)

Of course, as bad as this flooding is, it is nowhere near what some of those tornado alley folks have had to go through lately.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Yep, my wife just got back from Miles City, rained the whole time she was there. Yellowstone is looking scary right now, real close to the top of the banks she said. Down here the snow pack is still pretty heavy, I'm actually hoping for a gradual warm up, otherwise we'll be flooding also. Trail Ridge rd. still has 17', it won't open for Memorial Day- more snow than they've seen in 30 yrs., according to the talking heads. But still, nothing like the grief the folks out East are going through. Really terrible news.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Yep, my wife just got back from Miles City, rained the whole time she was there. Yellowstone is looking scary right now, real close to the top of the banks she said. Down here the snow pack is still pretty heavy, I'm actually hoping for a gradual warm up, otherwise we'll be flooding also. Trail Ridge rd. still has 17', it won't open for Memorial Day- more snow than they've seen in 30 yrs., according to the talking heads. But still, nothing like the grief the folks out East are going through. Really terrible news.

Yea... SE Montana (Billings/Miles City) has gotten hit the hardest by all the recent rain... I can imagine the Yellowstone's getting pretty high over that way... there's supposed to be a catfish fishing tourney down there on the lower Yellowstone in a couple weeks that I'm supposed to set up an angler/boater check point at... I wonder if they'll have to cancel the tourney if these water levels keep up...

Our snow situation sounds pretty similar to yours down there in Co... hardly any of our snow above 8,000 ft. has started to melt yet... & there's a ton of it up there... our dryest river basin in the state currently is the Madison River, & it is at 138% of normal snowpack... the ski area up here at Big Sky closed with a snowpack nearly double last year's closing snowpack...

I'm just glad we aren't getting giant F-5 tornados up here (although, we did have a small F-1 tornado touch down over by Miles City area a couple days ago)... I feel sorry for those guys over there in tornado alley that've been affected by all the recent tornados... entire communities just wiped off the map in a matter of minutes... pretty sad.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Boy, the flooding is all over the place this year. But I'll take the flooding around here vs. those tornadoes. I hope to never experience a tornado but we have been close to a few and I've seen first-hand some damage from tornadoes. I also recall that year, some may have read in the news, that back in 1953 there was a tornado here in MI that was really massive. Worse than the Joplin tornado. I remember that night as being very muggy with the air really still but the clouds looked weird. The next day was cold but we heard about the damage in Flint.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

some pics. of the Musselshell River flooding... water is now 6-8 ft. deep in parts of Roundup, Mt... http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta..._e9244adb-0a29-579c-bf79-22c5c1f6565d.html#21 http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...9-e28a-5d65-948f-97fe884d2df5.html?mode=image

more flooding pics. from across the state... (broken link removed to http://billingsgazette.com/gallery/)

Midwest folks along the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers- watch out. you aren't done with flooding yet... all this water has to go somewhere.. http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...cle_9a1f38a3-4edb-5764-9e1d-6b758d7412a3.html

Dennis... I agree with ya.. I'd much rather put up with this flooding than have to deal with an F-5 tornado...

 

[gibson]

With all of the snowpack out west, I wonder how the Colorado River is doing. I recall a few years ago, that it actually had dried out before it got to the Pacific, because of drought and the massive building in the Las Vegas metro area.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

John, that is quite normal for the Colorado to dry up just about when it crosses into Mexico. Not because of the massive building in Las Vegas but because of all the irrigation for the farms. We spent several winters near Yuma and were amazed at the difference in the Colorado River just between Parker, AZ and Yuma, AZ. Then when we went into Mexico all that was left was not much more than a trickle. In fact, there is a huge canal just before the river crosses into Mexico where water is sent into California and that one just about drains what is left of the Colorado.