Rocky Francis believes this year will be the year for another great flood, especially now that the mercury is about to climb.
“I think there’s a real and present imminent danger that we’re going to see something the likes Greeley hasn’t seen for a long while,” said Francis, owner of Big R of Greeley, 310 8th St., which sits along 8th Street west of the Poudre River.
The slow rush could begin today, with a high-mountain sun glaring down like a magnifying glass on a record snowpack that is more than 260 percent above normal; 80- and 90-degree temperatures are expected the rest of the week.
Already this week, Poudre River flows are 50 percent higher than they were last week, topping out Monday at 1,220 cubic feet per second at the mouth of the Poudre Canyon. By Tuesday morning, flows were at 1,150 cfs, which had dipped further to 1,000 by 5:30 p.m. From the canyon mouth in west Fort Collins, the water typically takes 12 hours to reach Greeley.
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