(Spencer)– The city of Spencer has been invited to participate in some research that could change how flood predictions are made. City Manager Kevin Robinson told the city council Monday the University of Iowa Flood Center has invited Spencer to be a part of the effort that would also involve Rutgers University and a federal agency…
“Flood predictability right now is focused on rainfall, primarily. You look at where it’s going to rain, you look at the impact on the watersheds and then you figure out what the flood potential impact on different communities is. This study will actually move it up the chain to cloud saturation. So the NASA component of this is NASA has the ability to monitor cloud densities, cloud saturation of water. The flood center believes this could give an extra day, day and-a-half notification, potentially, to rain events. So when you look at the rain event that happened to Spencer, Iowa and northwest Iowa in 2024, that event originated over the Rocky Mountains. If this system is funded and gets put in place, the Flood Center will be able to tell by the cloud saturation over the Rockies different scenarios in which and how much rain would fall in the watersheds in the Midwest.”
Robinson says they should know in a couple of months or so whether or not the research will be able to proceed.
