Rumor of ice jams?

[ccarver80]

Curious I just heard a rumor of possible ice jams at garrison causing sak to rise and there is an urgency going around to remove all fish houses ???

I'd hate to see amyone loose there ice House if it is true?

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Possible but hard to believe this would happen.
Is there going to be a problem with flooding again this spring with water coming from Canada?

 

[Ericb]

Nothing on the game and fish site. The river seems high in BIS. Seems it would take a bit for the lake to rise with the low flows this time of year. The river did start to break up the other day so there is a possibility.

 

[Lycanthrope]

I heard they are intentionally raising Oahe so that drilling will be impossible for the rest of the winter and possibly most of next year... Wouldnt surprise me any!

 

[Bfishn]

1.) How can there be an "ice jam" on a reservoir? Are you sure its not just some runoff from these warm temps the last couple days?
2.) How would raising Oahe stop drilling, the pads are way above any water line?
3.) There was a jam south of Bismarck raising the river within town last week.

 

[Brian Renville]

Not sure about down there but the 'Stone for sure is coming up. Lots of precip to the west with more coming and melting temps added on. I know quite a few guys either pulled their houses just in care or are keeping a close watch on them.

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After this weekend's storm and with the likely few more in the next month or two I wouldn't doubt the water coming out of Canada might be an issue at some point.

 

[ndbwhunter]

I heard they are intentionally raising Oahe so that drilling will be impossible for the rest of the winter and possibly most of next year... Wouldnt surprise me any!

You forgot to add this :;:stirthepot

 

[dean nelson]

1.)
3.) There was a jam south of Bismarck raising the river within town last week.

Not to mention they would flood south bismarck before they got the pad. Hell the civic center would be in nearly 70 feet of water! The reality is the lake is dropping like it always does at this time of year.

 

[Allen]

Curious I just heard a rumor of possible ice jams at garrison causing sak to rise and there is an urgency going around to remove all fish houses ???

I'd hate to see amyone loose there ice House if it is true?

Think about it, how could you possibly have an ice jam on the farthest downstream part of a reservoir like Sakakawea that is over 150 ft deep? And no, there is no ice jam blocking the inlet to the dam's outlet either, they are a long ways below the water surface.



Lycan, same kind of response for you. Think about it critically when people say things like that. One can just nod and smile, but please don't take them serious.



And no, there was no "ice jam" south of Bismarck a couple weeks ago. It was nothing more than the normal icing over of the river. Sheets of ice form on the flowing river, collect in the meanders south of Bismarck, and eventually this collection of ice cubes forms all the way up through the Bismarck/Mandan area. It's not a "jam" where the water can't get around/under it. Instead, this is where a lot of the ice sheets get turned sideways (not horizontal) and create a tremendous amount of friction under the ice surface. It also obstructs part of what was once a clear cross-section of the river that had water moving through it, so in order for the river to convey the same amount of water it did before the ice collected, the river level has to rise in order to get more channel capacity to make up for that which is now immovable ice. Very different than an ice jam which often obstructs flow in the river all the way to the river bed and creates flooding as water backs up.


I am guessing the ice on either the Yellowstone or Missouri above Williston has shifted and is creating some concerns?


And lastly, not much water in the Missouri River comes out of Canada. There's the Milk which has a part of its drainage north of the border, but everything from Fortuna and east goes into either the Souris or Red River basins, both of which flow INTO Hudson's Bay drainage basin.

Gotta love the internet at times.

 

[NDSportsman]

Could they be concerned with ice jambs on the river and thinking about decreasing flows there fore causing Sak to rise and possibly weakening any ice on it?

 

[svnmag]

Here's a freakn' ice jam courtesy of Jack London and Led Zep:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJm8fZ6WS5Y

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For you Slim

 

[Allen]

Could they be concerned with ice jambs on the river and thinking about decreasing flows there fore causing Sak to rise and possibly weakening any ice on it?

Not really, Sak is just fine in its normal range for this time of year. http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=bis&gage=garn8

Besides, the Corps wouldn't want to restrict the flow coming out of Garrison too much, there are water intakes along the Missouri that need to keep operating, Heskitt, Washburn, etc. It's a bad deal if you run a town and large power plant out of water. The Corps does tend to lower releases from Garrison to a winter level in order to minimize the risk and fear of ice affected high water, but something around 10-12,000 cfs is the minimum (if I remember correctly) needed to keep Heskitt and Washburn intakes viable.

 

[dean nelson]

Wonder if this is bleeding over from Mt and people confusing the two. I know they were having allot of ice jams over there the other day on the Yellowstone and the little bighorn and other local rivers as they iced over at a much faster rate then what is the norm. Could see people herring that and thinking it would have an impact on the lake like you would expect if you heard similar reports in the spring not realizing they are two totally differnt things.

 

[eyecatcher]

I bet somebody who wants the whole lake to themselves is spreading this rumor.

 

[ccarver80]

Haha yea I have no idea..... Like I said he said he heard it idk if it was in the radio or something... I was just curious if someone else heard something as well??