| Minnesota
- Early spring |
Lee
Frelich |
| Apr
14, 2006 14:35 PDT |
ENTS:
We are into another exceptionally early spring in MN. After
yesterday's
record high of 90, magnolia trees are in full bloom and many
species (elms,
cottonwood, silver maple) are almost through flowering and well
into seed
production.
Last week's warm spell in northern MN liquidated a 20-30 inch
snowpack over
an area three times the size of MA, and now all that water has
to make its
way through downtown Minneapolis, where the Mississippi is
narrowly
contained between limestone bluffs. The standing wave at the
bottom of
St.Anthony Falls is over 10 feet high, with mean looking, fast
moving,
rapids on foamy water stained the color of rootbeer from the
tamarack and
black spruce bogs of northern MN.
The Red River of the North crested in Grand Forks last week at
22 feet
above flood stage (still not that high compared to 34 feet
during the 1996
flood). Amazing the cottonwoods can survive there with fish
swimming almost
up to the base of their crowns during the spring flood.
Lee |
|