FARGO - Get ready for a big one.
With winter dragging on and the melting process slowed to a halt, the area is projected to be in for a "significant flood" this spring, says Greg Gust, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Grand Forks.
"Let's just say it's going to be in the realm of some of the big floods we've seen in the last few years," he said, referring to floods in 2010 and 2011.
"It's not looking quite so bad as '09," Gust added.
In 2010, the Red river crested at 36.99 feet. In 2011, it hit 38.75 feet, the fourth highest on record. The 2009 flood crested at 40.84 feet.
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Gust said slow melting and record to near record cold temperatures are bumping up the likelihood of a major flood.
He said temperatures will stay in the freezing range until the middle of next week. Things won't start really melting until the first week in April.
The snowpack upstream, in the Wahpeton area, is "as much or more" than it was in 2011, he said.
"It's going to take days and days to melt that," he said.
The weather service will be providing a flood outlook update tomorrow, in which Gust said he would better characterize what exactly the metro can expect this flood season. He wasn't willing to quantify the range of predictions prior to the release of the updated outlook.
