(KCPW News) With temperatures steadily climbing over the next five days, National Weather Service Hydrologist Brian McInerney says the threat for flooding, especially in the Salt Lake Valley, is ever increasing.
“The Weber River is above flood, Lost Creek is above flood, South Fork of the Ogden River is above flood and we anticipate the Logan River to reach flood stage Monday morning sometime, McInerney says. “But then what we are going to see for the rest of the week is we have warmer temperatures coming to Utah and with the increase in temperatures we’ll have multiple rivers and streams coming up to flood stage throughout Northern Utah.”
McInerney says although significant flood damage has already been done in agricultural regions of the state, the threat still remains in more populated areas.
“I was fortunate enough to fly in a black hawk helicopter over the Wasatch Range and the area that was most astounding at how much snow was left was Big and Little Cottonwood Creeks,” McInerney tells KCPW, “and compiled with this heat these areas are all flowing into heavily populated areas where the margin of error for any flood flows to either jump the banks or row the banks is very small.”
McInerney says it’s still up to Mother Nature to control this runoff. He says because forecasters cannot project weather more than one week out, it’s hard to see what will happen, but he believes cities and counties have done everything they can to prepare.
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