Home › extreme weather › Colorado Flooding: Nebraska’s Platte River Next in Line for Flood Surge – weather.com Colorado Water Headed Where?

Colorado Flooding: Nebraska’s Platte River Next in Line for Flood Surge – weather.com Colorado Water Headed Where?

By C. J. Refsland on September 18, 2013 • ( 2 )

The Colorado flood disaster resulted from a massive amount of rain falling over the foothills and adjacent Front Range urban corridor of northern Colorado.

Now, much of that water has collected in the South Platte River, sending it well above flood stage, and is heading downstream. Eventually this flood surge – a sort of Plains tsunami, metaphorically speaking – will roll into Nebraska, with potentially serious implications for interstate commerce.

(MORE: Anxious Coloradans Await Word of Missing)

Flood Forecast Forecast river levels at Roscoe, Neb. courtesy NWS North Platte.

Flood Forecast

As the South Platte River enters western Nebraska near the northeastern corner of Colorado, it begins to parallel Interstate 80, one of America’s major transcontinental highways. The forecast from the National Weather Service calls for the South Platte to rise dramatically later this week, potentially high enough to flood a section of I-80 near Roscoe, Neb., about 45 miles west of the city of North Platte.

If this happens, it could significantly disrupt traffic and truck shipments through this corridor, which links the Rocky Mountain states to the west with major Midwest markets to the east. An important railroad line and the main alternate road route, U.S. Highway 30, also run through the South Platte River valley region.