Rivers and creeks this week raged with water much higher and faster than even the rare benchmark 500 year flood.
with little snow in the mountains and wildfire scars in Red Lodge from a year ago when the area was hit by 105-degree Fahrenheit heat and fire.much higher and faster than even the rare benchmark 500 year flood. Weather-whiplashed residents and government officials raced to save homes, roads and businesses.
In the Yellowstone area, after a winter with light snow, it finally accumulated a couple of months ago, wet and cold, likely thanks to the natural weather event La Nina, building the snowpack in the mountains to above normal levels. Snow fell so hard on Memorial Day weekend people had to abandon camping gear and get out of the park while they could, said Tom Osborne, a hydrologist who has spent decades in the area.
“A lot of these roads had existed for decades and had not seen any sort of flood damage like what we saw,” said Lance VandenBoogart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.The storm’s bullseye hit the eastern end of mountainous Custer Gallatin National Forest, dumping five inches of rain in some spots.conditions occur when parts of the equatorial Pacific ocean cool, changing global weather patterns. While La Nina can dry out the U.S.
“What is extraordinary is the combination of that high snowpack that got built up in April, May, together with this rainfall event and the warmer conditions,” Lall said. “That’s where the flooding is coming from.”