Seasons Start To Shift: Ice and Flooding Become Concerns

MADISON, Wis. (CIVIC MEDIA) – Spring is right around the corner and temperatures on a roller coaster ride, why the shift in season can be quite dangerous.

The tug-of-war of temperatures has started across the state. It’s the time of year where old-man winter and summer essentially face off. This can bring cold for a few days and extended warm ups as well. And the occasional late season massive snow storm with the added moisture in town. Leaving us left in a time that’s filled with problems as the seasons start to change.

There’s a few reasons why. First, we’re hit with mixed precipitation quite often now. It won’t hold steadily below freezing for all snow to form in the forecast. So it’s a timeframe where it’ll be warm enough during the day to fall as rain, then it flips to snow at night as temperatures drop colder. This leads to slick road conditions and longer commute times becoming more frequent. 

When anything this time of year is wet from rain or snow melt during the day, it refreezes at night. Because our temperatures still fall below freezing after the sunsets. Watch out when you wake up in the morning, there may be black ice!

Some simple steps to stay safe this time of year is to watch your steps. Look down and widen your stance. Take shorter steps, especially on your stairs, driveway and parking lots. Hold on to handrails or cars, or anything around just in case. And when driving, remember that the sides of the road from snow melt may also get slippery, too. Basically anything that has a glare to it, suspect that it’s ice.

Frost depth this time of year matters most, when it comes to snow melt and rain arriving. This season it’s considered normal to above normal. This of course is from the frequent cold snaps throughout the winter. Frost depths currently range from 15 inches to as deep as 38 inches, which is way more than was observed at this time last year. The deeper the frost depth, the more runoff possible. Think of it this way, basically the frozen ground will not allow water to readily pass through the surface and be absorbed. This is one of the primary reasons why floods happen during this time of year.

If you live by a river, ice jams are also popular. Because as the river’s ice melts and breaks apart, it floats downstream and may get caught on and pile up on other areas where the ice there is still covering it. So when this happens it creates a dam. It causes water to back up, and rise, upstream. Which wreaks havoc on nearby homes with flooding. And as temperatures rise it causes rivers to swell. Because all of the nearby snowmelt and rain eventually all funnels into the river basin system.

At this point, there is a medium risk of break up and ice jamming on our area rivers this season. The potential for ice jams generally increases with heavy rainfall events before the ice is completely gone from the river. Break-up jams usually cause the most damage and flooding, with significant property damage. In fact, break-up jams have been known to push entire houses off their foundations and rip wooden decks from other homes. This can happen anywhere on a river but areas where it bends or narrows are at a higher risk.

So as some welcome the Spring warm up, others dread it. I guess it depends on where you live and what you do. Because it sure is a muddy messy season with trail closures and outdoor recreation on pause. That is until the green up starts and we start to dry out.