Recent rain pushing back river flood crests in Minnesota

The National Weather Service says the heavy rain that’s fallen over the past few days across southern and central Minnesota is not helping problems with flooding.

That rain has pushed back the expected crests of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers in the Twin Cities metro area from this week to next.

“Most of the smaller tributaries will crest this weekend and start to work their way down slowly,” said hydrologist Craig Schmidt with the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities. “However on the Mississippi and St Croix, they’ll still be kind of rising through the weekend and hitting their crest early next week and staying pretty high probably through all of next week.”

In addition to cresting later, the St. Croix and Mississippi will also take longer to begin receding.

“There’s so much water in the system, it’s just really taking its sweet time to get through,” Schmidt said.

In southern Minnesota, Schmidt said the Redwood and Cottonwood rivers are now rising again but are not expected to crest higher than they already did.

And he said the Crow River west of the Twin Cities is continuing to rise in the wake of the rain.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported Thursday that a partial closure of Fort Snelling State Park in the Twin Cities has now been expanded to a full closure, due to high water along the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

The DNR said it will reopen the park after waters recede and after any safety issues are addressed.

Fort Snelling State Park was shuttered for about six months in 2019 because of flooding.

The state park is located on the lowlands below Historic Fort Snelling, which remains open.

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