Every Spring, the weather warms up, the snow melts and our rivers and streams fill up.

Most of the snow in South Dakota has melted.... and thankfully most have had no major flooding problems. 

Up until this weekend, we were looking pretty good. 

But with the wet and stormy weather now and in our immediate future, conditions could quickly change.

In 1997 the waters of the Big Sioux River flowed over its banks...way over.  You're looking at aerial shots of the flooding near Renner twelve years ago.  and while nobody is expecting a repeat this Spring, it's not being ruled out.

The Big Sioux River in northern Sioux Falls.  Right now, it's at basically normal levels.  But any major spring storms with heavy rains that come through could cause all of our hydrological forecasts to be thrown out the window.

"If we get some heavy rains in the next week or 2 we could see moderate to possibly major flooding if we see these heavy rains." Mike Gillispie is the hydrologist at the Sioux Falls National Weather Service office.  His job is to constantly monitor area rivers and streams and to warn us if the waters rise.  While mike says moderate to major flooding is possibility around here, he says its almost certain to be a repeat of 1997 for our neighbors to the north. "The outlooks right now could be as bad or worse than that.  There is widespread 2 to 5 inches of water in the snowpack.  Some areas are 6 inches plus.  That could result in record floods in Fargo and Grand Forks."

It's almost unthinkable that we could see scenes like this play out again in parts of North Dakota.

But the newest flood outlook from noaa is indicating a high risk over the Red River Valley into extreme northeast South Dakota.  Preparations are already being made in Fargo and Grand Forks for record flooding .

And Gillispie is included in those plans.  He's going to be heading north to help out. "We don't want to have the one hydrologist up there working 16 to 20 hour shifts for 2 weeks."

Back here at home, most of our rivers are behaving right now, but we're watching them closely.  With rain in our forecast the next couple of days, water levels will definitely rise.