Yellowstone River Flooding
According to a US Geological Survey (USGS) news release, the severe flooding along the Yellowstone River this week is a once in 500-year catastrophe.
Rivers in regions of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho have broken their banks as a result of unusually heavy rain and quick snowmelt in recent days, eating bridges and sweeping away large sections of roads.
Yellowstone National Park has been forced to evacuate almost 10,000 people. The park’s entrances are scheduled to be blocked until at least Monday.
“The peak streamflow was higher than the 0.2 percent (or 1 in 500-years) flood (level) at two streamgages, Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs and Yellowstone River at Livingston,” stated USGS hydrologist Katherine Chase in the announcement.
According to the announcement, “the Yellowstone River at Billings was between the 1 percent (or 1 in 100-years) and 0.2 percent (1 in 500-years) flood,” and streamflow data is “currently being published as ‘provisional’ until further analyses of the stream channel and data are completed.”
“While these floods are commonly referred to be larger than (or rarer than) a 1 in 500-year catastrophe, there is the same possibility that they might occur in any one year,” Chase writes in the release.
The USGS frequencies are based on historical data for the places of the Yellowstone River. According to scientists have discovered that climate change is affecting the frequency of extreme weather occurrences, and that tendency is projected to continue as the planet warms.
According to the National Weather Service, Yellowstone National Park received about two to three times the average rainfall for the entire month of June in a three-day period last week, and precipitation this month has already been more than 400 percent of the average across northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana.
recentclimate – Yellowstone River Flooding, Yellowstone River Flooding Update