Butler County under flood watch for potential ice jams
The National Weather Service has put Butler County under a flood watch, warning of “potential ice jams through Friday afternoon.”
The flood watch, which expires at 1 p.m. Friday, also applies to other parts of Western Pennsylvania, including neighboring Allegheny, Clarion and Westmoreland counties.
According to meteorologist Jason Frazier of the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, some waterways in Western Pennsylvania are still choked with ice from the run of below-zero days in late January and early February, even though temperatures in Butler were as high as 54 degrees on Thursday.
“When you have warm temperatures, that starts to thaw or create cracks in the ice,” Frazier said. “All of a sudden then the flow of the river is able to take over and start pushing that ice and we start carrying that ice down the river. Then the ice starts to back up and accumulate on the edges and then it can potentially block the flow of the river.”
Reports from other media indicate that as of 5 p.m. Thursday afternoon, an ice jam has already caused a flood on a road in New Bethlehem, Clarion County, making roads impassable.
Adding to the potential risks of flooding in Butler County, forecasts call for a 100% chance of rain and possible thunderstorms on Thursday night with more rain predicted for Friday.
Forward Township issued a warning to residents about potential flooding from ice jams through its Facebook page Thursday afternoon. The township is one of several in Butler County that lies close to Connoquenessing Creek.
According to township manager Tom Hartwig, the creek is one of the waterways which has been choked with ice for weeks.
“With the 1 inch of rainfall that they’re calling for ... because the ground is so saturated from all of the snow melt, a lot of the rainfall is going to run off into creeks and streams,” said Hartwig. “If the ice breaks loose, then that rush of water is going to go downstream and the possibility exists that there could be flooding in low-lying areas. We have a lot of residents in low-lying areas.”
