FREMONT, Neb. — Last year parts of Iowa and Nebraska saw record-breaking flooding. Now the National Weather Service has released their outlook for spring flooding in 2020.
While the forecast puts many states at moderate to major risk, it looks like most of Nebraska and Iowa are only at minor risk this spring.
"Comparing years, we're nowhere near the conditions of last year. We don't have snow on the ground, the ground is not frozen," National Weather Service of Omaha/Valley Senior Service Hydrologist David Pearson said.
While this new data is promising, minor flooding can not be ruled out.
"They key thing that we still have to keep into consideration is the fact, the ground is still saturated," KMTV Chief Meteorologist Jennifer Zeppelin said. "All that moisture that we ended up with from last year, didn't really go anywhere. So the ground moisture content is still pretty deep and still pretty moist."
That means that if the spring rain is heavy, we could see flooding in vulnerable areas. Dodge County Emergency Management Director Thomas Smith hopes that is not the case. Dealing with more flooding and the coronavirus would be overwhelming.
"The pandemic itself for one is uncharted territory for all of us so having two would be a real challenge," Smith said.
