With the recent plague of bitter cold air that has overswept western PA, the rivers have developed significant ice. At my home town of Parker, along the Allegheny River, the river is 100% covered and partially jammed about half a mile south of the boat dock near the mouth of Bear Cr. The river rose 5 feet since Tuesday but has leveled off there. Floodstage is 20 feet and the current stage is 8 feet. NWS-Pittsburgh expects more ice to continue to develop adding to the amounts of ice on the rivers. Right now, there is really no danger, however, once the temps peak about freezing the ice may break up and re-jam...totally damming up the river causing backwater flooding. To make matters worse, once the "plug" breaks a flash flood more or less occurs downstream as it is the same effect as a dam breaking.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 09 2000 - 21:55:38 EST