Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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The worst part of flood season 2023 may be over.

Water is receding now in many major watersheds around Minnesota. Drier and milder weather in the forecast will likely lead to more rapidly falling river levels in the next week. 

Let’s take a look at a few rivers and check water levels.

The St. Croix River at Stillwater appears to have crested. The river reached 89.26 feet Monday. It’s now forecast to hold relatively steady this week, then fall steadily starting this weekend. 

This looks to be the seventh-highest crest on record at Stillwater. 

West of Minneapolis in Wright County, the Crow River at Delano crested around 20.39 feet Sunday into Monday. It is forecast to fall around 3 feet by this weekend. 

This week’s crest is notable as the fourth-highest crest on record for the Crow at Delano.

The Red River at Fargo, N.D., has already crested and is falling steadily. The river is already down more than 2 feet from around the 30-foot level Saturday and is forecast to fall another 3 feet by early next week. 

The Mississippi River is already falling in the northern Twin Cities suburbs. But the crest at St. Paul is still ahead. If the projected crest of 18.6 feet verifies, it would be the 12th-highest crest on record for St. Paul.

Our next weather system looks likely to bring more scattered and lighter rains to Minnesota. That’s likely to keep river levels falling this week. 

Most forecast models project less than one-half inch of rainfall across most of Minnesota through Saturday. A few models crank out an inch of rain across a relatively narrow swath of central Minnesota.

Here’s the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts model precipitation output through Saturday:

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Drier and milder weather in the forecast will likely lead to more rapidly falling river levels in the next week. 

Worst of Minnesota flood season may be over

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA

European model (ECMWF) precipitation output

Worst of Minnesota flood season may be over

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