The latest flood outlook from the National Weather Service in Grand Forks shows little change from its last report a couple weeks ago.
Hydrologist Amanda Lee says overall, risk for significant flooding has gone up slightly but is largely unchanged in many areas of the state. Areas along the Red River and Devils Lake Basin are showing minor to moderate threat, with a low chance of major flooding. Lee says several factors have led to much of North Dakota’s drought conditions being erased – such as fall rains, deep frost steps and slightly above normal snowpack and moisture content.
"This last drought monitor that just came out this week indicates that all those higher level drought conditions have been eradicated with that fall rainfall, and most of the southern basin is out any drought categorization. By and large, drought conditions have improved since last summer and fall, kind of looking more normal with our soil moisture for this time of year."
Lee says the rest of this winter and spring shouldn’t have too many surprises as far as precipitation is concerned. She says models are forecasting “much of the same” throughout the season, with no major indicators for larger precipitation events.