EXCERPT: . . . But on Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s spring outlook reported that the situation for the central US is soon going to get much, much worse. “The extensive flooding we’ve seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a statement. “This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season, with more than 200 million people at risk for flooding in their communities.”
Waterways including the Mississippi River and the Red River of the North are already soaked with precipitation levels that are 200 percent above normal. Alongside rapid snowmelt, heavy spring rains and ice jams have led to a massive, destructive rise in water levels. [...] The past five years were also the hottest on record. And as an El Niño weather pattern takes hold, forecasters think that 2019 could become the hottest year ever. So keep an umbrella close by. (MORE)
Mar 23, 2019 06:34 AM
(This post was last modified: Mar 23, 2019 06:37 AM by C C.)
![[Image: Final%202019%20Flood%20Risk%20Map%202019.png]](https://www.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/Final%202019%20Flood%20Risk%20Map%202019.png)