HARMONY, Pa. — The Connoquenessing Creek is snow-covered right now, but just under the surface ice is slowly forming as temperatures continue to drop. Ice is what causes concern for homes in harmony that sit near the creek.
Channel 11 News spoke with experts to explain how these winter ice jams often cause springtime flooding.
Ice jams or ice dams as experts refer to them often begin to form on days like today when the temperature is below freezing. After multiple days of below freezing those ice jams will continue to grow often to six or eight feet, beginning with the smaller waterways and then forming jams in our larger rivers.
“The more ice we have and the thicker the ice is the more likely that it is that we are going to have ice jams,” explained Colton Milcarek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
These ice jams can cause significant flooding and pose a serious threat to nearby homes and businesses.
“The worst-case scenario is that we have an overrunning rain event. A rain event mixed with warming temperatures would melt all of our snow, forcing water into the area rivers creating a sudden ice jam that acts as a dam keeping the river from flowing which could lead to flooding,” he explained.
Last spring residents in Harmony, Zelienople. Evans City and Jackson Township were hit hard.
“The first being where there is a large bend in the river where ice can get stuck the other being a bridge where the ice can get hung up on and stop,” Milcarek said.
We asked Milcarek if this current arctic blast would lead to springtime flooding.
He told us it was too early to tell but said there is no immediate warm-up in the forecast which for our waterways is a good thing for now.
“The best-case scenario is we leave wintertime and we go into spring and experience a gradual period of above-freezing highs that allows the ice to gradually melt,” he answered.
Now in past years in this area, the ice jams have forced the US Army of Engineers to come into physically break down or remove the ice mounds to avoid flooding.
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