Good Advice Theodore.
Personally, I don't think the flood will be as bad as presently forecast. But, a lot depends on how much it rains. Low areas, etc are all empty and ready to become pot holes again. The bad thing is that it snowed early, and the ground didn't freeze as deep and hard, thus providing cracks as it normally does.
Time will tell.
We surely hope so, and certainly time will tell, that's right. We're going to see pretty much a cold wet spring this year from the astronomic signals I see.
Spring this year will feature lots of precipitation, but some of it will be in the form or snow, and with a cold March, that means some of the semi-permafrost snow will melt when temperatures do rise.
There's all kinds of problems ahead in April & May with all this, from the threat of avalanches in mountain regions, to floods, primarily caused by run-off from the coming snow melt into rivers along with heavy spring rains.
The snow will have helped assuage worries of drought in the Corn Belt, but last year will have caused the dry soil to have cracked and erode just enough, that with snow-melt run-off and any heavy rains, there's the potential for floods.
The temperatures have not been favorable in March for the ground to warm this early spring. Everything is going to be pushed back, say, 3 weeks or so and the spring conditions may not help, other than temperature, and that causes a number of problems as well with late snow-melts.
This is what I have stated for years about drought and flood being able to co-exist at the same time. It's happened many times before in our climate history.
We have all kinds of signs here of the weird climate year of 2013 I am forecasting. Today for example, this cold wet spring has led to between 10 to 15 inches of snowfall in northeastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas. There's precipitation for Illinois and Indiana with this storm that will go into Sunday.
These early spring snowstorms do happen, but the snow-melt and spring rains in combination are going to be a problem this spring, in April and May.
And, if you look further to the U.S. south, there are signals for tornadoes this spring that's quite possible in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Then, there's the gusty winds I see for this year, which along with low humidity threaten wildfires in places like New Mexico and western Texas.
The astronomic signals prove this out in other regions of our hemisphere. In the United Kingdom, there was a spring storm with strong winds and heavy rains that fell on Devon and Cornwall for nearly an entire day.
I think several people died as a result. The storms damaged dozens of homes roads in floods with debris with the spreading surface water.
With this cold weather, the troubles are with flooding on roads that turns to ice because of lower-than-normal temperatures.
If you see what farmers in the UK have to endure because of this climate, it's a worrisome sign in our hemisphere for this spring planting season.
For instance, in the UK, the Cornwall outlets reported that their farmers are dismayed by what they call "horrific conditions." That's flooded fields and sodden ground, with no sign of spring there in their West country.
Unable to get machinery onto their land, and facing mounting debts from last year's climate catastrophe, they are now confronted with a very late spring and a farming calendar that's weeks behind schedule.
With lambing in full swing the early mornings have been a miserable prospect for sheep farmers and shepherds striving to save new-born lambs and keep ewes dry and comfortable.
"It's absolutely horrific, particularly for anyone just starting their lambing, who are now completely in trouble," said Colin Rowland, chairman of the Devon branch of the National Farmers' Union. "You simply can't put out young lambs in this weather."
Mr Rowland, who has 1,000 North Country Mule ewes lambing at Bampton, near Tiverton, said he had been up for three nights ensuring all his sheep were lambing safely. "If you haven't enough room in your lambing sheds you're in trouble," he added. "For most farmers, once they get into the second week of lambing they have enough space.
"Hopefully the weather is improving and the lambs will be able to go out. Farmers make the best of what they've got – but inevitably in this weather, anyone lambing out of doors will find themselves picking up a lot of dead lambs."
He has 150 pairs currently indoors and counted himself lucky only to have lost three lambs overnight, which he attributed to foxes. And there has been no sign of the Schmallenberg Virus, which causes ewes to abort or give birth to deformed lambs, he said.
The region's arable farmers, too, have been hit hard by the conditions. One farmer said, "This is taking us back to square one. We've had such trials and tribulations with the weather, from last harvest right the way through the autumn. We were fortunate to have a break in February so we could get onto the land – but what we so badly need now is some warm sunshine to help those early crops. And there are still opportunities to plant spring barley."
Long days and nights of continual rain had come just at a time when warm, dry conditions were most needed, said Andrew Butler, Devon county adviser of the NFU. "We were hoping for a good start to spring, after last year, but it just hasn't arrived," he said.
"Sheep farmers are all involved in lambing right now and though a lot of arable farmers caught up with their schedules during the cold, dry spell, this continuous rain is clearly disruptive, when the ground should be drying.
Farmers there say that they want to get on with it, since they have a vast range of jobs, but very wet early spring climate conditions are making that impossible.
So, if you look at what I've been saying here about the wet spring, windy conditions and cold temperatures, we can see why I have been talking so much about global cooling, because this is the kind of weather that dominates in that climate.
This wet, cold spring in North America means a need to seriously prepare for flooding from snow-melt run-off and heavy rains on stressed grounds because of the drought.
Even farming regions that did not experience the drought, but have placements near major rivers and tributaries need to mind river levels because of this climate. The coming snow melt means that flooding can easily take place with heavy rains. These floods can affect wide regions if preventative actions are not taken soon.