WASHINGTON — Spring flooding threatens the upper Midwest, parts of the Great Lakes region and the Northeast, government forecasters warned Thursday.
The Red River of the North along the Minnesota-North Dakota border faces the nation’s greatest threat of spring flooding, the federal Climate Prediction Center said in its spring weather outlook.
Warnings have been posted along the Red River, the only area in the 48 contiguous states listed as a high flood threat in the new national outlook.
“We are looking at a situation with all the ingredients for near-record flooding in the upper Midwest,” said Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service. “Sudden snowpack melts due to warm temperatures or a heavy rain could further complicate the flooding on the northern plains.”
Facing an increased risk of flooding are:
• Much of northern Minnesota, central North Dakota and northern South Dakota.
• A region extending across northern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio and the southern two-thirds of Michigan.
• New York’s Mohawk River Valley and along the northern border of Massachusetts.
The melt from heavy winter snowfalls is expected to provide the excess moisture in the flood areas.
The flood risk is reported to be below average in central Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Mid-Atlantic states, Florida, Louisiana, Texas and along the Mexican border and West Coast.
The only parts of the country expected to receive unusually heavy rain or snow this spring are Hawaii and Alaska.
Below-normal rainfall is expected in southern Florida and the West, including Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, most of Washington, Montana and Colorado as well as northern California and Nevada.
