Water management officials overseeing the Missouri River Basin say they expect to see both temperature and precipitation below normal going into 2021.
That continues the trend earlier this fall, when precipitation was below normal in much of the upper basin despite cold and snowy weather. The 2020 runoff forecast for the upper basin was 17 percent above average.
Hydrologist Kevin Low says the basin is transitioning to a dry fall season.
“Again, we’re going into the fall with soil moisture dryer than normal for the majority of the basin. We’re going into fall with stream flows going into a downward trend. The system storage seems to be in good shape right now.”
Low says dry soil means the potential for spring floods will depend on snowpack in mountains and plains over the winter.
Most of the basin is experiencing some form of drought. The latest from the National Drought Mitigation Center shows drought degradation over large areas of Montana and North Dakota.
The Missouri River Basin continues to have large areas of moderate to severe drought in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa.
MISSOURI RIVER BASIN WATER MANAGEMENT (FALL 2020) PUBLIC MEETINGS
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