The weirdest river in Minnesota by far is the Red River which winds along the western parts of Minnesota, starting at the western edge of the state, and flowing further down the flood plain to Grand Forks, and up to Fargo.  The Red River is a glacier created northern flowing river, with many eddy and meandering tunnels heading always eventually north.  Past the Fargo Moorhead  area, the Red River twists and turns by the low flood plains of the upper parts of Minnesota, before it finds its final resting point into the areas past Pembina in Canada.  Very strange indeed, as the water of the Red River often swells in the spring with the effects of winter snows and precipitation, but offers few floods into Canada.  The Red River is often called the Red River of the North, and flows into Lake Winnipeg.

MN Red River Predictions for 2013

The various weather prediction teams are ensuring that this year will mark more leveled flooding along the Fargo Moorhead area, beating the 2009 mark by a few feet.  This record is set at 40.9 feet, and most forecasts are calling for 43 or 44 records.  With the path of the river flowing along Wahpeton, Breckenridge, Fargo, Moorhead, Halstad, Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, Drayton, and finally Pembina before weirdly vanishing into the earth of Canada.

Mayors of Cities along Red River Build Safety in Sandbags

Usually the colleges, prisons and schools are let out to assist with the frequent flooding along the Red River in Minnesota, and help create sandbags.  After the record floods of 1997, and 2009, the repeated errors of the past were solved by a series of army engineered embankments and levies, along with millions of sandbags.

Currently, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead are ready with over 1 million new sandbags created in the last week.  They have an entire area of the public works facilities dedicated to storing sandbags, and creating new needed sandbags.  The entire city puts aside public work projects, and everyone works along the Red River to barricade the river up to pass safely by, and not break into the flood plane.  With the Red River moving slowly and how it twists and turns, this creates many flooding issues, as the debris of the past frozen winter gets stuck and creates barriers along the way.  The most crucial part to any Red River flooding is that there are slow melts to recent and past snow accumulation along the western side of Minnesota, even as far south as Iowa.

When the Red River fills in the spring, the curves and slow movement of the river gets laden with ice and river waste, and the flooding begins.  When there are open channels in the northern part of the river, as it moves towards Canada, the flooding is lessened, and there are not as many worries about peak levels.  This year has been a good thing so far, as the temperatures have been around freezing all the way up until the middle of April, so the flooding has not been an issue as of yet.

With the slow start to spring, there are many people who have had time to review their place on the river, and see that they do everything they can to move the water past them, without losing the battle.  Obviously, the most effective barriers are concrete, or heavy wood barriers, with earth behind them.

The mayors of Grand Forks, Fargo and Moorhead are all calling to action the people that can volunteer, and if the record flood does start to grow, they can enlist students and sometimes even community leaders, and prisoners to assist with sandbags and preparations.

Red River Tributaries

The Snake River, Big Stone Lake, Lake Traverse, Buffalo River, Bois de Sioux River, Wild Rice River, Sheyenne River, Turtle River, all feed into the Red River, or the Red River of the north.  The amazing thing is, this river in the summer months is a quiet and small river in many spots, and is often photographed as a fine place to fish and hunt.  With the increase of recent snows and precipitation, there could be record levels all at once, but we will have to wait for the weather to warm.  Once it does warm, and the snow pack begins to melt, we should experience a record flood in the Red River Area.

https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/Rebound/Glacial%20Rebound.htm