5-30 IAN High Water

 The Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security is keeping a close eye on weather and flooding conditions throughout the state and preparing for flooding after heavy rainfall yesterday and more storms expected .

After so much heavy rainfall there is a higher-than-average potential for damaging flooding due to record snowpack in many areas of the state, many rivers have reached flood stage.

Hydrologist Troy Lindquist of the National Weather Service in Pocatello  says continued heavy rain will also add to potential flash floods in Idaho. Lindquist says its important to keep an eye on local streams and creeks, especially those that are already at capacity. Here’s USDA /NRCS spokesperson Julie Koeberle: “You know you have heardwe have a large snowpack still left in the mountains and most of Idaho especially in the upper Snake and the Bear River Basin and also northern Idaho, the whole state is more than twice the amount of snow and water that we usually have and so it is just now starting to melt but as you mentioned we’ve had some crazy weather and last night some sites picked up new snow. The issue  is once you have this melting snowpack and then if we have any additional rainfall on top of that, that is really going to accelerate the amount of melt and the amount of water  that the streams can hold.