BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Last year’s flooding was some of the worst on record for many Vermont rivers, with some reaching higher levels than Tropical Storm Irene.
In Montpelier, the Winooski River surpassed Irene’s level by 2.4 feet – only surpassed by the flood of 1927. But there is no other information from other hard-hit communities like Barre, because unlike Montpelier — which has two river gauges — the Stevens Branch has none.
John Goff, a senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service says efforts are underway on the state and community level to expand that river gauge network. There are also new river modeling efforts in the works to improve and expand forecasting capabilities.
“When you say a term to the general public like ‘major flooding,’ what does that mean, you know? Ok, that sounds bad, but what does it mean? If you can visualize that on a map and say this is the extent that the river will flood, then that can actually hit home harder and people may take that to heart more seriously and maybe move out of harm’s way,” he said.
He says NASA is working on a different model which uses AI and machine learning to improve forecasts. Several river gauges in our area are being used as testing sites to help incorporate snow melt into the model to improve winter and spring flood forecasts.