Yellowstone River flood

[Minerat]

New look for the Gardner, MT to Yellowstone north entrance road after 6-13-22 rain event. 1.73" of rain at north yellowstone Lake.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hBJ0tuaEXKU

[Winger Ed.]

Less than 2" doesn't seem like that much rain fall.
The ground out there must not let much soak in,
and there must be some really really large area for run off to flow from into the river channel.

Here, it takes about an inch before you even see puddles.

[M-Tecs]

Park officials said in a statement that “unprecedented amounts of rainfall” caused the flooding. I am not what the total rainfall was and how the melting snow packs factor into this. My guess it was much more than 1.73".

Years ago I was in the area when we had 11 inches of rain in 3 hours and it was nothing like this.

[beemer]

Makes you think, we drove that road twice just a couple weeks ago. Hate it for the folks that are trapped.

[trebor44]

Best thing that could happen to Yellowstone! The 'real locals' won't have to put up with those pesky 'tourons'. I Quit going to Yellowstone when the 'minons' starting blocking the roads with the 'bear and buffalo jams'. The critters are going to love the peace and quite this summer! Gully washers are the 'way of the West'! The geology of the west is water sculpted! Building roads next to a water feature is batpoo stupid!

[jim 44-40]

Mother nature angry! Any trout in there?

[pmer]

I've only been there once and was great. They park the car wherever it lands grab the camera and start running. I was one of "them" lol. Seems like a one of a kind place though.

[trebor44]

Wonder where the fish go during a flood stage?

[Rapidrob]

We are so dry here in NM that we are having the largest Forest Fire in state history. I sure do wish some of that moisture would drop down to us for a few days. It has not rained at my house in going on six months.

[contender1]

Rapidrob,,
I have been in NE NM a few times. Is that fire anywhere near the NRA Whittington Center,, or Cimmaron?

[Minerat]

Reports are that snow melt contributed to the runoff. With the rock base not much can soak in, if we don't catch it in reservoirs it goes to the ocean.

[memtb]

Lots of videos on YouTube showing the effects of the floods.

A combination of some hot days prior to the rain (some places received more than 6”) compounded the situation with snow melt and excessive rainfall! memtb

[kootne]

Right now the river basin snowpacks in Montana are all well above normal. Check out the link.

https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/mt_swepctnormal_update.pdf

All winter long the %'s were well under 100% except in the NW corner which were normal or a little over, (Kootenai, Flathead & Lower Clark fork)
These High percentages you see now are from snowfall that fell the last couple months. That snow has not had the many freeze/thaw cycles that harden up the earlier snow. The snow making up those current very high numbers which is due to good moisture and cool enough temperatures to pile up snow. that snow is just setting there ready run down the cricks at the first warm weather, especially if it is warm, heavy rain. The reason the water runs off is because the terrain is steep and water doesn't soak into rocks ( These are called the Rocky Mountains for a reason) 1.76" rainfall meaured down on the flats is also probably equal to several times that up in the high country. So the cricks rise, then the river rises and the gradients of these rivers gives that water some real power.

[Greg S]

Rivers were already swollen from the melt than thr additional rain and snow it melted.

[farmbif]

never been to Yellowstone but it seems 2" rain in an afternoon to be a lot like here in the mountains it leads to flash flooding. water runs off the mountains into the valley real quick.

[Gator 45/70]

Never been out that way, Grounds probably too hard for me to walk on anyways.

[Mal Paso]

YouTube wouldn't load, no pictures, didn't happen.

We had 28 inches of rain in 24 hours approaching 2 inches an hour at times, no space between rain drops. Left ruts in the road too big for 36" NDT tires. Put 30 foot trenches through Hwy1.

[Idaho45guy]

My town flooded this morning. I live up on a hill, so was fine, but felt awful for the folks that live along the river.

301261

301262

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301264

[Rapidrob]

The fire is not close to the Whittington Center. It is still going strong.
https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/05/20/the-four-active-large-fires-in-new-mexico-have-burned-more-than-a-third-of-a-million-acres/

[MT Gianni]

Best thing that could happen to Yellowstone! The 'real locals' won't have to put up with those pesky 'tourons'. I Quit going to Yellowstone when the 'minons' starting blocking the roads with the 'bear and buffalo jams'. The critters are going to love the peace and quite this summer! Gully washers are the 'way of the West'! The geology of the west is water sculpted! Building roads next to a water feature is batpoo stupid!

Someone else gets it too.
The issue isn't the rain as much as it has been so cool we are just now seeing spring runoff. 2" of warm rain on top of 6' of snow will move whatever is in it's way.

[trebor44]

Rain on snow makes some great wet slush avalanches, plasticity at work!

[Minerat]

Rain on snow makes some great wet slush avalanches, plasticity at work!

and low coefficients of friction.

[GregLaROCHE]

Anyone heard how long it was going to take to get repaired?

[trebor44]

The North entrances aren't going to happen this year, unless roads are built in new locations or we defund Ukraine to pay the reconstruction costs!

[abunaitoo]

Been there only once, when I was really young.
I enjoyed it all.
Sat outside of Old Faithful at dawn watching it spout.
All the other geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and animals.
Sister and I got a kick out of feeding the squirrels.
Mother Nature is amazing.
To many tourist everywhere these days.
We have nothing but problems with them.
But with the money they bring in, the gooberment ignores the peoples complaints.
Was kind of nice when we had the shut down.

[Beerd]

Anyone heard how long it was going to take to get repaired?

the work is going to be done in the flood zone.
how long will it take to get it PERMITTED?
..

[trebor44]

Does NPS need a permit? What about NEPA requirements?

[Minerat]

When the roadways on the St Vrain river got wiped out in September 2013 like this, the work took about 18 months and there was no discussion of permits as they were essential for moving people into and out of trapped communities. They had rough roads done along the creek in a couple of months and it looked like the Gardner road when they started.

[kerplode]

Anyone heard how long it was going to take to get repaired?

The damage I've seen in Yellowstone looks very similar to the Big Thompson flood of 2013. Temporary repairs to the main road were pretty quick...Maybe a month. It took ages to get the permanent repairs done to the main and surrounding roads and repair/rebuild the banks and bridges, though. I'd say close to 2 years IIRC.

edited to add: The area Minerat mentioned in the post above was damaged in this same flood.

[MT Gianni]

NPS property on Park grounds, I am not sure of the permitting process if any. Elevating the road above the 100 year flood plane could be really expensive.