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Rock River: Ice jams causing changing levels

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By Thomas Geyer | Wednesday, January 9, 2008 12:09 AM CST | () comments

After 17 years living along the Rock River’s South Shore Drive in Moline, Judy Miller isn’t too worried about the ice jams that are causing flooding from Joslin, Ill., to Moline.

Looking out her window about 9 p.m. Tuesday, she saw the water was about 10 feet up in her yard.

“I don’t expect to see it reach the house,” Miller said. “It’s just another day on the river.

“There’s only ice on our side of the river,” she said. “The rest of the river is pretty much clear. Every now and then, a big bunch of ice breaks off and comes down. But pretty much the good stuff is done. This

wasn’t anything.”

Miller said she missed watching the ice breaking off and being carried downstream — it happened at night.

“It’s always pretty phenomenal when the ice breaks,” she said. “It’s really interesting to watch. This is one of the things you want to watch, to see how Mother Nature can really act up.”

At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Rock River at Moline stood at 12.3 feet, National Weather Service Meteorologist Linda Engebretson said.

It was no surprise the river had risen above the 12-foot flood stage, she said. At 6:45 p.m. the river stood at 11.9 feet at Moline, up from 11.2 feet a couple of hours before.

“This is normal ice-jam type conditions,” Engebretson said, adding that there is no way to predict what will occur.

Two meteorologists, Tom Philip and Jim Hladik, surveyed the Rock River about 4 p.m. Tuesday. At that time, they found ice jamming between TPC at Deere Run and past Illinois 84 near Barstow, Ill.

But things change quickly with ice jams.

“You can expect fluctuations of 1 to 2 feet as long as there is ice jamming,” Engebretson said. “It can happen fast. Things can change in 30 minutes.”

With above-freezing temperatures expected during the daylight hours and below-freezing temperatures at night over the next several days, the speed of the melting could be moderated somewhat, she said.

“Some of the water in the backwater areas will gain ice and that will lock up some of that water,” she said. “Essentially, instead of getting a constant fast melting, we’ll get a slower melt.”

That will help a little, but riverfront residents will be affected in different ways, she said.

“For some folks, it prolongs the misery,” she said of the slower melting. “People downstream will be a little happier because the water won’t get much higher. But people upstream in the middle of the ice jams will be affected. It just depends on where you are.”

Weather calms down

Today’s forecast calls for a quiet day. It should be mostly sunny with a high of about 42 degrees and an overnight low of 31. Thursday’s

forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of snow with a high around 38, and an overnight low of 28. Snow accumulations are expected to be light, the National Weather Service said.

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.