Hundreds of thousands of people were told to be on alert for “sudden” rises in river water levels on Thursday after significant warming heightened the risk of ice jams in the Omaha, Nebraska, area.
National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologists issued a flood watch and a hazardous weather outlook for the Omaha forecast region early Thursday morning. The flood watch is in place for the Platte, Elkhorn, and Loup Rivers because of “potential ice jam development,” the alert said. It will remain in place through Monday evening.
It’s a little early in the season for the ice jams to occur, NWS meteorologist Laurel McCoy told Newsweek. Over the past two weeks, frigid temperatures caused ice to build up on rivers in the area. Now, the area is undergoing rapid warming, with temperatures reaching into the 40s, 50s, and even 60s in some areas…