The longer it takes the winter-spring high flows to kick in.
That’s because all the water is “freeze dried” in cold storage,
But there is no escaping the spring eventually.
For the “Everglades of the North,” aka the Red River basin, as featured at the U.S. Geological Survey’s flow gauging station in Fargo, North Dakota, the melt kicks in between March and April …
Raising river discharge a good order of magnitude in the process.
That left me wondering if the river’s noticeable amplification of flow over the past two decades (as shown in blue on the graph) has something to do with an earlier melt? What I see from the graph is that timing of the melt remains unchanged over the decades. Additionally, the increase in discharge seems consistent throughout the entire year, and not just associated with any one season.
Meteorologist Daryl Ritchison points to precipitation instead. The yearly total has risen from the 18 inches in the 1970s inches to closer to 23 inches since 1993.
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| Red River of the south? Ridge and slough landscape of the Everglades in October 2010 |
That goes to show how far a little extra precipitation will go …
Or in other words, out into the floodplain.
The Red River valley is as flat as the Everglades you know!
4 comments:
Our snowmelt water maxes out in late May/early June most years. It's interesting that the snowmelt flow can effect a landscape thousands of miles to the south.
Florida could use some snow melt, especially south Florida, for the reason that its flat landscape is "storage poor!" By that I mean that for as much rain as we get in the summer wet season, come late winter and spring drought is at hand. Without snow on the ground to melt (here in Florida), it's usually a waiting game until the summer rains start in late May.
Great Post. I just ordered tickets for a concert on April 21 in Fargo. I hope the melt doesn't cancel it (which sadly has happened in the past during late March into April).
Thanks Daryl ... and you being a meteorologist you should be able to schedule the flood waters around scheduled events. :^)
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