Floods

M

Michigan Gunner

Member
From watching weather reports, I can see that South Dakota has had a lot of snow this year. Is serious flooding expected? The first time I hunted in SD was in 1999. There was still lots of water around from the snows in 1998.

Lock and Load! :D
 
MG, well the sloughs are really full thins spring and the snow is all gone down in southern part of state. There is always flodding in the James River Valley and my Sioux Fall and I would expect flooding in NE part of state with heavier snow falles there.
 
In spite of having above normal snowfall this winter I don't really think the flooding will be any worse than a normal year. A lot of the snow we received had a low moisture content and so far it is melting quite slowly here in NE SoDak. I think a lot will depend on the amount of rain we receive. Hopefully it all works out to some excellent nesting conditions. The birds have had a very tough winter and I'm sure we've lost a fair number. They seemed to be making okay until we got 18" on Feb. 20th. I've seen a lot fewer pheasants since that last storm than I was seeing prior to it.
 
The James River valley, does it ever get unflooded? 18 was closed nearly all of last year.
 
onpoint said:
The James River valley, does it ever get unflooded? 18 was closed nearly all of last year.
Click to expand...

It does in the drier years but we haven't had many of those lately. The James River is the slowest moving river in the US. There is just little to no drop in elevation along the James. From Jamestown, ND to Mitchell, SD is approximately 240 miles. There is less than 100 feet difference in elevation between those two cities. That's less than 1/2 foot drop per mile. Pretty obvious why the James is out of its banks most of the time, especially in wetter years.
 
One of the hiways is already closed --18 I think, but 44, 42 will probably go to. Big Sioux is closed at AKron IA. has crested once from Skunk creek runoff(local so to speak). We will see another crest from up north one of these days. Thunderstorms last nite. If May and June are ok so are the pheasants. June was too wet last year.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top