A FEW MORE CRESTS TO GO...
The rain has largely stopped over the Midwest but flooding continues. There has been incredibly heavy rain since the beginning of the month of September. With upwards of 10 inches of rain in some spots, we've picked up 500-700% of normal rainfall in seven days (or less).
There was additional heavy rain on Saturday (not included in the map above) due to tropical moisture sitting in overhead. This tropical airmass was brought in by the remnants of Gordon, which has now fallen apart.
Now the rain is over, but rivers continue to flood and some are even still rising in part of the Midwest. Here's all of the rivers currently above flood stage.
11 locations are experiencing major flood stage Saturday night with 22 at moderate flood stage. Some rivers are already falling, while most south of Highway 20 will still crest over the next few days as water travels downstream. I'll highlight a couple of spots. The first is the Wapsipinicon in Anamosa which crested on Saturday.
The river is falling now, but the crest of 23.28 feet is the third highest on record. Before it even got to the crest some people were having to travel by boat to and from their homes, as you can see in this photo from Athena Anderson on Friday.
The last spot I'm watching in my local area to crest is the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids. The expected crest is just below major flood stage at 15.9 feet Sunday night.
This crest is not even in the top 10 crests on record, coming in six feet below the 2016 crest and 15 feet below the historic crest of 2008. There have still been flooded parks and roads due to the high waters on the Cedar. The good news is the water should fall quickly after the crest.
There will still be crests down the Mississippi River from Iowa/Illinois into Missouri as the water travels down stream from the last seven days of rain. Here's the forecast in Burlington.
The crest is expected there late Sunday night. Then further downstream in Missouri, here's the forecast for Chester.
With little to no rain in the forecast over the next week the rivers should return to normal levels by the end of the upcoming week.
RK
