By Sara E. Pratt, NASA Earth Observatory
June 24, 2022
Yellowstone National Park has skilled historical flooding, with rivers cresting at heights now not viewed in 100 years.
Snowmelt and heavy rain introduced on traditionally excessive water in Yellowstone National Park that destroyed properties, roads, and bridges, and isolated a few of the nationwide park’s gateway communities.
This yr has been historical for Yellowstone National Park in extra suggestions than one. Founded in 1872, The USA’s first nationwide park is commemorating its 150th anniversary. It also endured unprecedented flooding, with rivers cresting at heights now not viewed in 100 years.
In the 2nd week of June 2022, an atmospheric river—a slender band of tropical moisture—soaked the Pacific Northwest sooner than dumping several inches of rain on northern Wyoming and southern Montana. The inundation coincided with a warm spell that exacerbated melting of the heavy snowpack.
“This ended in flooding infrequently or never viewed sooner than across many residing rivers and streams,” essentially based totally on the National Weather Carrier (NWS) in Billings, Montana.
June 16, 2021 – June 16, 2022
On June 13, park officials closed Yellowstone—which spans 2.2 million acres (8,900 square kilometers) in northwest Wyoming, southwest Montana, and jap Idaho—and equipped the evacuation of extra than 10,000 guests ensuing from safety concerns. Campsites had been flooded, roads had been washed out, and rocks tumbled onto roadways.
Irrespective of a slack originate to the 2021–2022 water yr, a fab, moist spring introduced considerable-wanted water to the region, which has been experiencing drought cases. In April, increased than median precipitation in the Yellowstone basin helped construct up the snowpack on the ground, which had increased to merely about the 30-yr median by May perhaps perhaps perhaps additionally. The Moderate Chance Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured these photos evaluating snowpack on June 16, 2022, to the snowpack on the an identical date in 2021.
Between June 10 and 13, the Absaroka and Beartooth ranges bought between 0.8 and 5 inches of rain, which combined with 2 to merely about 5 inches of snowmelt, essentially based totally on the Billings NWS. The combined rain and snowmelt, equal to 4 to 9 inches (10 to 22 centimeters) of rain, flowed over already damp soils.
May perhaps perhaps perhaps additionally 30, 2021 – June 6, 2022
The maps above repeat the soil moisture anomaly in northern Wyoming and southern Montana all around the week sooner than the storm. The maps had been constructed with data from the Slash Situation and Soil Moisture Analytics (Slash-CASMA) product. Slash-CASMA integrates measurements from NASA’s Soil Moisture Entertaining Passive (SMAP) satellite and vegetation indices from the MODIS instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left plan reveals soil moisture cases between May perhaps perhaps perhaps additionally 30 and June 5, 2021, when the speak became as soon as experiencing extra excessive drought cases. The picture at honest reveals soil moisture cases from May perhaps perhaps perhaps additionally 31 to June 6, 2022, honest sooner than the rainfall.
The runoff deluged the Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Clarks Fork rivers and their tributaries. At Corwin Springs, north of Gardiner, Montana, the Yellowstone River crested at 13.88 feet on June 13, 2022, breaking the old myth of 11.5 feet space on June 14, 1918. A myth river discharge of 51,400 cubic feet per 2nd became as soon as also measured that day, breaking the old myth-excessive waft of 32,200 cubic feet per 2nd in 1996, essentially based totally on U.S. Geological Look circulation gauges.
North of the park, Gardiner and Cooke City had been isolated by the rising floodwaters, which washed-out roads and bridges, swept away extra than one properties, and flooded a complete lot extra. Rock Creek took out several bridges and flooded businesses in the historical downtown of Red Hotel, Montana. The flooding also introduced on energy outages and compromised ingesting water provides in different towns.
The northern piece of the park, the put the river flows thru steep canyons, suffered the most hurt as the Yellowstone River prick a recent route. The avenue between Gardiner and the park headquarters approach Colossal Hot Springs, a predominant provide route into the park, became as soon as washed out and it is expected to grab months to repair.
The southern piece of the park seen much less hurt from the flooding. On June 22, 2022, the west, south, and east entrances had been re-opened alongside with the southern loop avenue, giving guests gain entry to to Worn Faithful. The north and northeast entrances to the park are closed indefinitely.
NASA Earth Observatory photos by Joshua Stevens, utilizing soil moisture data from Slash Situation and Soil Moisture Analytics (Slash-CASMA) and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.