After glimpsing through many products available to forecast flooding, it looks like we are not going to have widespread or major flood issues as (thankfully) the rain won't be heavy enough to fill up our area rivers. A mild stretch of days behind us have slowly melted away nearly all of the snow in the wider, Champlain Valley, and also hit the higher terrain a bit as well.
Flooding does not look to be a widespread concern, but some localized issues may pop up.
We're looking for about .25" to .75" of rainfall Tuesday for most areas, with locally an inch or so for some of southern VT and NH. According to the products known as flash flood guidance (or an estimated rainfall total to produce flooding), this will not be enough rain to produce much river flooding. As of Monday's guidance, our region generally would need to see anywhere from 1.5-2.25" of rain to get widespread river flooding problems (see image, left, or click here to see latest image online on original web site)
That said, there is one river forecast to reach near the stage of minor flooding. The Otter Creek near Rutland could reach to near flood stage, impacting areas that do flood quite frequently. The area is along the Otter Creek from Clarendon to Pittsford, and typically the fields flood. Roads shouldn't be impacted at the forecast level of flooding. The Pemi River in northern NH is also forecast to rise a bit, but not even into minor flood stage, so expect minimal impacts, just higher water. Click here to see the latest river level on the Otter Creek.
Aside of river able to be forecast for, we also need to keep tabs on any area rivers that still have ice. With mild temps and rainfall, some small ice jams could occur. At this time, I don't see any imminent issues, but ice jams are much less predicatable. So, it's something to monitor.
Check in with the level of your nearest river by visiting here. Click the box nearest you. *note* Some provide forecast levels, other are only the observed level.
If you see flooding, let us know! If you can safely take pictures of any flooding that may occur, share your pics on our Facebook page, or email news@fox44now.com
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