Flood threat tabled with more snow predicted
Courtesy photo North Idaho Maritime Capt. Tom Troy and Mike Morris make their way through the ice with a tugboat on the southern end of Lake Coeur d’Alene on Friday. Tugboats have played a pivotal role over the decades in alleviating the threat of flooding in the region and have been called upon for the first time in eight years. The company will continue to break up the ice on the lake and the St. Joe River when the weather warms up.
Courtesy photo Here is the view from the back of the Kelly Ann tugboat operated by North Idaho Maritime, which has started breaking up ice on the southern end of Lake Coeur d'Alene and will continue up the St. Joe River when it warms up to reduce the threat of floods.
BRIAN WALKER/Press Recent thawing conditions have created scenic ice crystals such as along Highway 97 near Mineral Ridge. Snow is expected to return as soon as Monday night and fall off and on for the rest of the week.
While this on-and-off January thaw has only teased folks who are rooting on milder weather, it's done wonders about staving off major flooding feared from the snow and ice buildup.
But, with plenty of snow still to melt and many area rivers and lakes frozen, precautions are still being taken for when the thaw hits in earnest.
North Idaho Maritime took a test run with a tugboat on Lake Coeur d'Alene on Friday to start breaking up the ice at the southern end in preparation for making its way up the St. Joe River when the weather breaks.
The company has been called to ice action by Benewah County for the first time in eight years to help alleviate flooding concerns.
"We're waiting for Mother Nature to help us out a bit," North Idaho Maritime Owner John Condon said, adding that ice is still too thick to head farther upstream onto the Joe. "It's pretty tough going right now, so we want to wait until we get a warmup or some rain."
Condon said the ice is 6 to 10 inches thick on the southern end of the lake and it is thicker on the Joe where it's more shaded and there's less water flow. Condon said breaking up the ice on the Joe will be about a two-week project.
Hagadone News Network meteorologist Randy Mann said he doesn't see thawing conditions posing flood concerns anytime soon because snow is expected to return as soon as Monday night and will continue off and on for the rest of the week.
"When you add it all up, we could get at least 6 inches from Tuesday until the end of the week," he said.
Mann said some of the precipitation later this week could fall in the form of rain rather than snow.
The Coeur d'Alene area has received about 65 inches of snow so far this winter at just past the halfway point and the normal for an entire season is 69.8. While more snow is expected this week, Mann said the heaviest dumping is behind us.
"I expect we will have between 25 and 30 inches between now and the end of the season, so we'll coast into that 90-inch mark that I've been talking about," he said.
For now, North Idaho Maritime will remain on standby for breaking the ice on the Joe when flood threats return.
"Right now it's just an old-fashioned winter we're having," Condon said.
Even with the large amount of snow in the valleys, the Panhandle has the lowest snowpacks in the mountains in the state, according to a recent report by the Idaho Natural Resources Conservation Services.
Snowpacks in the region are between 65 and 80 percent of average — the lowest in the state.
"While many river basins are well over 100 percent of normal, northern Idaho is lagging behind," a press release from the Idaho Water Resource Board states.
The lower-than-normal snowpacks comes after fall precipitation in October and November in the Panhandle was about 165 percent of average, nearly the highest in the state.