Minor Flooding Expected In The Quad Cities This Spring

We are starting to get a clearer picture of what spring will bring us. Recently, the National Weather Service (NWS) of the Quad Cities released their 2021 Spring Flood Outlook and it looks like we could see some flooding in the Quad Cities.

We always worry every year about flooding here in the Quad Cities. Of course we all still remember the HESCO barriers breaking back in April of 2019 which flooded a lot of downtown Davenport.

While we always seem to see some flooding in downtown Davenport, it's good to know an idea of just how much flooding we may have to prepare for this spring. the the National Weather Service (NWS) of the Quad Cities released their 2021 Spring Flood Outlook which paints a pretty good picture on what we can expect.

According to the NWS of the Quad Cities, the updated Spring Flood and Water Resources Outlook is for the Quad Cities Hydrologic Service Area (HSA). This covers portions of eastern Iowa, northwest and west central Illinois, and extreme northeast Missouri. This HSA includes the following locations:

• Mississippi River from above Dubuque, Iowa to below Gregory Landing, Missouri and its tributaries.
• The primary tributary river basins include the Maquoketa, Wapsipinicon, Cedar, Iowa, Skunk, and Des Moines Rivers in Iowa, the Fox River in Missouri, and the Pecatonica, Rock, Green, and La Moine Rivers in Illinois.

This 2021 Spring Flood Outlook looks at the time period from mid February through mid May.

Right now, the NWS of the Quad Cities and NOAA are predicting that between mid February and mid May, we will have minor/moderate flooding from the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities.

Minor/moderate flooding means that officials think there will be some inundation of structures and roads near streams. That it means it may be necessary some evacuations of people and/or transfer of property to higher elevations.

You see other forecasts for rivers and tributaries in the Quad Cities by clicking here.

See pictures below of when the HESCO barriers were breached at the end of April in 2019. We hope that doesn't happen in 2021.