Flood — Nicollet, Minnesota

2011-03-21 to 2011-03-31 · near North Star, Nicollet, Minnesota

Event narrative

Several highways and county roads from North Mankato, northward along the Minnesota River to Le Sueur, Minnesota were impassable due to Spring flooding. Some of the major routes included 169, 22, and 93 and 99. There was one fatality on March 22 when a MNDOT worker tried to clear an ice jam and his Backhoe tipped over and fell into the area where Seven Mile Creek flows into the Minnesota River.

Wider weather episode

Due to a very wet fall, and a deep snow pack by mid March, when temperatures began to rise and melt the snow, area streams, creeks and eventually rivers rose to minor, moderate, and major stage levels.

During the onset of the snow melt, area streams, creeks and rivers had numerous ice jams that caused flooding across many areas in southern Minnesota. Road closures due to creeks and streams developed as early as Monday March 21st, and quickly spread across a large portion of southern Minnesota. By March 23rd, several areas along the Minnesota River between the southwestern suburbs of the Twin Cities, to Mankato started to close. This included Highways 93 and 19 near Henderson, and Scott County Road 9 near Jordan. In addition, Lac Qui Parle, Yellow Medicine, Brown, Watonwan, Blue Earth, Sibley, Scott and McLeod Counties had several county roads closed or impassable by Wednesday March 23rd.

A large storm system on March 22nd and 23rd dropped on average one half to 1.50 inches of liquid precipitation across the area. However, as much colder air began to move south on the 23rd, all of the precipitation switched over to snow.

By Wednesday, March 23rd, major river crossings in the Twin Cities began to close due to the flood waters; this included Highway 41 near Chaska and Highway 101 near Shakopee. In addition, more county roads started to close across southern Minnesota, and Highway 65 in Albert Lea shut down.

The last week of March, most of the Minnesota River and its tributaries had their first crests. However, a cold spell the last week of March, caused the rivers to fall or hold steady as the runoff from the snow melt abated.

Although ice jams were reported across the area, one ice jam on the Seven Mile Creek near St. Peter resulted in a fatality on March 22 when a MNDOT worker tried to clear the ice jam and his Backhoe tipped over and fell into the area where Seven Mile Creek flows into the Minnesota River.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.2639, -94.0553)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 288945. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.