Cedar River at Cedar Rapids reaches toward record level for December

CEDAR RAPIDS - The level of the Cedar River here has been climbing its way to a possible record high for the month of December.

On Tuesday evening, the river was at 9.31 feet as measured at a river gauge near downtown, with the National Weather Service's Quad Cities office predicting that it would crest at 12 feet late Friday evening.

Tim Gross, a NWS meteorologist in the Quad Cities, on Tuesday said it appeared that the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids reached its highest December level in 1991 at 11.61 feet, while city officials said they thought that the 1991 level was the highest at least since the river gauge was installed more than 100 years ago.

The Cedar River in the city reaches flood stage at 12 feet, though the river doesn't begin to become a problem until it climbs higher. Before the city's 2008 flood disaster, the river twice reached 20 feet since 1851. In 2008, it got to 31.12 feet.

Jon Durst, the city's sewer superintendent, said Tuesday that the NWS's projection - that the river will rise to perhaps 12 feet - prompted the city to close low-lying Otis Road SE and roads by some parks. However, the city has no plans to plug storm sewers along the river or to station pumps in streets, both of which are other early steps in the city's emergency flood protection protocol, Durst said.

Gross said the potential record river level in Cedar Rapids and unseasonably high rivers elsewhere in Eastern Iowa are the result of three to five inches of rain that fell in the Cedar River watershed and elsewhere in Northern Iowa over the weekend. In a typical year, the precipitation would have fallen as snow, he said.

Gross said there is no additional substantial rain in the forecast for the next several days, so the river levels should not continue to rise above the projected levels.

Initially, the NWS projected the Cedar River level in Cedar Rapids would get to 13.2 feet, but that projection lowered from 12.7 feet to 12.5 feet to 12 feet throughout Tuesday.

The city's Durst said the average level of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids in December is between 4 and 5 feet.

On another front, Gross said it looks like Cedar Rapids will not have a white Christmas. Historically, the city has had 1 inch or more of snow on the ground on Christmas Day 54 percent of the time, he said.