June precipitation was above normal across a lot of the Missouri River Basin, according a recent US Army Corps of Engineers report.
Jody Farhat is Chief of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division. She says the runoff in the Missouri Basin has been above normal the last few months due to the rainfall across the upper basin, particularly in Montana and the Dakotas.
Farhat says the corps had thought initially that the runoff this year would be below normal because the mountain snow pack and plains snow pack were quite a bit below normal levels.
"Earlier this year we had thought we would have reduced flows this summer for navigation support. We were beginning to look at implementing drought conservation measures but this additional rain we had means we will have good support for navigation this year with full service flows and good winter releases as well.”
Farhat says the corps is always concerned about the potential for flooding even during a drought. She says that can happen when there’s a heavy rainfall event downstream of the reservoir system.
More information is available online at nwd-mr.usace.army.mil.