The large rainfall shown in yesterday's IEM Daily Feature resulted in significant flooding. The featured chart today looks at the stage reports from river gauges along the Turkey River in far NE Iowa. The right hand panel shows that the significant rainfall was isolated to the upper portions of the basin with locations to the SE receiving less than an inch. So the surge of water from the rainfall event can be tracked as it flows downstream. The six gauges shown are spatially plotted on the right hand panel with the Spillville location representing the 'start' of the river rise for this analysis. The time when the rise begins (defined in this context to be a 10% jump in stage) is then computed and compared back to the Spillville time. A speed is also calculated based on the distance traveled over that time. So at a rate of about 3 mph, the river rise flowed its way SE impacting places like Elkader and Garber some 12-18 hours later.

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Tags:   flood   turkey   river