Flood watch for Eastern Iowa as melting snow meets rain this week

With a strong storm system moving into the Midwest on Wednesday, and the ground saturated and still frozen, the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for Linn, Johnson and other Eastern Iowa counties.

The weather service's Quad Cities bureau issued the flood watch Monday ahead of a storm system expected to bring higher temperatures and up to an inch of heavy rain Wednesday afternoon through Thursday afternoon.

'Any heavy rain and snow melt will quickly run off into low lying areas and area waterways,” according to the weather service.

High temperatures will be in the low to mid 50s Wednesday and Thursday in the Cedar Rapids area.

The flood watch will be in effect for Benton, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Iowa, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Keokuk, Linn, Van Buren and Washington counties.