Did you know that March 12th – 16th is Flood Safety Awareness Week in the U.S.?  Flooding is one of the top weather killers every year in the country.  Of course it also produces huge amount of property damage.  I’ve seen some streams and small rivers out of their banks the past few days with the rapid snow melt and light to  moderate amounts of rain we’ve had.  Most of the flooding has been lowland and agricultural in nature so far.

 We are really lucky we didn’t have a 2 to 3″ rain storm or we could have been in a lot of trouble when it comes to flooding.  Even though the snow melt flood risk is diminishing now because we never really built up that huge snow base like other winters we still need to be on guard.  This is especially true because the developing pattern is one that could feature shower and storm chances for about a week in a row starting this weekend and going through next week.  Seeing that it will be unseasonably warm and humid, some of the showers certainly could produce heavy rain.  Therefore we can’t rule some flooding problems as the month goes on.

This is certainly a great time to refresh your memory on what flood terminology means, see what new technologies are helping us forecast floods better than ever, and consider buying flood insurance.  These topics and many more are covered in a great brochure put together by the National Weather Service.  It has many fascinating photos of flooding and its power within it as well.  Be sure to check it out at this link.   http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/Floodsbrochure_9_04_low.pdf

Posted under Education, Flooding, Natural Disasters, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Spring, Weather NEws, Weather Safety