You will note quite an absence from my little report here….I had a good reason. Nevertheless, we are back. Thanks for the notes you folks have sent. Either I’m doing something very right or very wrong. No hate mail…hmmm…I will tell you this, the weather has been great. Hope you have had a chance to enjoy it. Ten years ago today, there were some celebrations going on in Louisville….see, this was the last day the Ohio River was above flood stage. Kinda interesting, but the river was above flood stage for less than two weeks. But, when it crested it was about 15 feet above flood stage. That’s still about 15 feet short of the all time record set in 1937, but it was good enough to burn a spot in folk’s memories. See, what the deal was is that the ground was frozen…it had been cold. There was a big pile of snow to the north. Then a whole mess of rain fell at one time. The ground couldn’t absorb it and, on top of that, there was melting snow to the north. Its kinda interesting that the Miscatatuck river in Indiana, that always seems to be out of its banks, was only above flood stage for 2 days. But all of the water goes into the Ohio…and it all did at once. The run-off in combination with the local rains resulted in too much water in what is naturally a pretty shallow river. I can hear some of you now…”shallow?” Yes..shallow he said. The natural state of the river was changed when in 1870, the Federal Government called on the Army Corps of Engineers to develop the canalization of the Ohio River. It was a project designed to maintain navigation…keep water high enough to keep the waterway navigatable. The project was completed over 50 years later with the McAlpine structure. Many people think that the dam and lock structure is for flood control. NYET! It has nothing to do with flood control and everything to do with navigation.
If you want to know more about the 1997 flood, the local NWS office has put up some pretty good stuff at:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/lmk/?n=flood97
I hate the Texas Aggies…Matt Milosevich and I are both from Houston and we know that the aggies in College Station Texas have no idea what a basketball is..but they may have a pretty good team. I’d probably forecast a good tournament run for them, if I’d allow myself to pick the aggies as successful in anything. BTW…between Houston and College Station is Brenham Texas and that little ole Texas Ice Creamery, Blue Bell. Great ice cream. Going on sale today in Louisville.
Lots of folks had tornado questions….Soon I’ll try to print some of my answers and respond to you who have written. Also, I’ve got my rubber mallet out and am bopping our webmaster trying to get him to set this up a little more conventionally….but you are seeing how much influence I have with him. Perhaps I will try the beer and cold cuts route…er…the bribe him with honey approach. In any event, we are working on it.
rbsymon@wlky.com
