The risk of significant flooding in the Red River Valley is down from recent years and even lower than last month’s forecast due to the lack of snow, forecasters said on Jan. 26 — bolstering hopes the region may be spared a fourth consecutive battle this spring.
The flood risks are also low across the rest of North Dakota and Minnesota, the National Weather Service said.
No more than a few inches of snow cover the ground across the Red River basin in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, said Weather Service meteorologist Jim Kaiser in Grand Forks, N.D. More importantly, he said, the snow contains less than a half-inch of water and much of that moisture should soak into the dry topsoil as it melts.
“Since we’ve had below-normal precipitation from before freeze-up through this winter, our risk of significant flooding is quite a bit less than it’s been for the last three or four years,” Kaiser said.
The updated flood outlook said that while the risk on the Red River and its Minnesota and North Dakota tributaries has receded from December’s forecast, and there’s little chance of major flooding, the chance of minor flooding is greater than 50 percent at Fargo-Moorhead on
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