Huge, Destructive December Storm Ending, Huge Floods Remain

Just the peak of a house roof is visible
as the Illionois River reaches a
record flood crest on Monday. 

We are slowly saying goodbye to the huge bout of storminess in the nation that cursed us with deadly tornadoes, flooding downpours, high winds, blizzards and ice.

But severe flooding is the calling card left behind.

Incredible amounts of rain fell in the Mississippi Valley especially over the past week. More than 10 inches poured down in many places.

The flash flooding of small creeks and rivers and streets and such have ended, or will shortly, now that the torrential rain has moved out.

And good riddance.

At least 13 people died in these flash floods, mostly in cars that got caught in high water along roadways. Proves the point, don't drive into flooded areas. You never know how deep the water is or how strong the current is.

A car can be washed away with a lot less water than you think.

As of Tuesday morning, 53 USGS river gauges in the Mississippi Valley were in major flood stage. A total of 434 gauges were in at least minor flood stage in the Midwest and Southeast.

The next phase of this flooding is the Mississippi River.  The Ohio and Arkansas rivers, too.

In a few places, the Mississippi might reach record high crests. In many more, the crests will be among the top five on record.

That's particularly amazing for this time of year. If you want the Mighty Mississippi to really flood, you need a lot of snow melt from its northern reaches or the northern reaches of its major tributaries, like the Missouri.

The massive storm causing the flooding,
not to mention tornadoes and blizzards and ice
in the United States yesterday.

Or you need extra heavy versions of the torrential rainstorms that sometimes strike the Mississippi Valley in the late spring or early summer. (That's how the record, epic Mississippi flood of 1993 got going.)

In December, the ingredients are never, until now, there to get the Mississippi into high flood. It's too cold up north, so there's not much in the way of melting snow.

December rainstorms aren't usually all that heavy or widespread, so that's not a factor.

This time, a series of December storms were indeed much heavier and more widespread than seen before.  Which means the Mississippi is now causing trouble.

Already, before the peak of the crest arrives, the city of West Alton was under an evacuation order as the water overtopped a levee and the water is expected to flood that community any second now.

The flood stage at Cape Girardeau in southern Missouri might make it to a record crest. Flood heights ranging from second to fourth highest on record along the Mississippi will continue all the way down through Louisiana to the Gulf of Mexico through the first half of January, say river forecasters.

Flood walls, many bolstered and made taller after the devastating 1993 Mississippi River disaster, but surely some towns, or sections of towns, will suffer catastrophic flooding as a few levees are overtopped.

There will probably be some flooding in and near Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi, notes The Weather Channel, and industrial and shipping activity around Baton Rouge, Louisiana will be screwed up for awhle as well.

Down in Texas, parts of the Red River might go into major flood stage this week. If so, it will be the first time on record that's happened along the Red River within one year, says the Weather Channel. 

Thankfully, over the next week, torrential rains will be confined to near the Gulf Coast, so not much water is going to be added to the flooding rivers just to the north.

Meanwhile, overseas, Great Britain had tragically destructive and record warm weather much as the United States did over the past week.

Incredible flooding has caused at least a billion dollars in damage in much of Great Britain this month, especially around Cumbria earlier this month and around York and Greater Manchester this past weekend.

Another strong storm is expected to cause further British havoc with heavy rain and destructive winds tonight and Wednesday.

BBC forecaster and climate correspondent Paul Hudson said central England will have its warmest December since at least 1659, when they began keeping reliable weather records there.