Second river crest expected this week
By Shelia Tomkins
A second spring crest on the Mississippi River is expected this week and is predicted to top the one earlier this month at Guttenberg.
As of Monday morning, the U.S. Weather Service in LaCrosse, Wis., was predicting a crest of 20 feet at Guttenberg on Friday, April 26. That is approximately five inches higher than the crest of 19.56 feet on April 5 this year.
The second crest is attributed to April rain and snowmelt in the Upper Mississippi River basin.
If the river reaches the predicted crest this week, it will bump the flooding this coming week into fourth place in the list of historic crests.
The highest crest here was 23.65 feet in 1965, followed by 21.68 feet in 2001; 20.15 feet in 1993; and 19.84 feet in 1969.
Flood stage in Guttenberg is defined as 15 feet by the National Weather Service. "Moderate" flood stage begins at 18 feet and "major" flood stage at 21 feet. The causeway road to Abel and Esmann Island floods when the river reaches 19 feet.
River crest predictions are subject to change from day to day, based on many variables including recent rainfall, soil saturation, ground temperature and other factors.