The National Weather Service has been keeping an eye on several rivers across Northeast Ohio this past week due to ice jams, but flooding concerns are easing.
Some ice remains at the mouth of the Grand River in Lake County, according to Jim Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The river is flowing, and the jam isn鈥檛 posing a huge risk, he said.
鈥淭here is still a fair amount of ice pretty close to the mouth of the Grand River there near Fairport Harbor,鈥� Sullivan said. "However, the river level itself is fairly low and we haven't had any reports of flooding in over a day. So we believe the water is kind of flowing through and around any ice jam near the mouth of the river.鈥�
Ice jams form on rivers when chunks of ice block the flow of water toward the lake, said Raelene Campbell, also a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
鈥淔rom all of January being so cold, we had pretty substantial ice development across area rivers and across Lake Erie as well,鈥� she said.
When the region begins to warm up, the ice on the river is dislodged and begins to flow with the water. When it gets to the mouth of the river, or sharp bends within the waterway, the ice can form a 鈥渏am,鈥� blocking water from flowing, causing flooding in the immediate area.
鈥淭here's really nowhere for the river to flush the ice out,鈥� Campbell said. "What we end up getting is what we call an ice jam, which is essentially just all of that ice piling up in one location and then some of the water trying to flow through the river becomes kind of backlogged.鈥�
The Chagrin and Vermilion rivers had ice jams earlier in the week, but both are flowing again.
The City of Vermilion hired crews to break the ice with an excavator on a pushed barge, said Tony Valerius, the city鈥檚 service director.
鈥淲e were able to wait for the ice flow to move out and allow an open area for the ice to flow to in the river, so that鈥檚 when we started breaking," Valerius said. "And for the most part, it's all flowed out."
In Eastlake, an ice jam on the Chagrin River cleared after some flooding earlier in the week, according to Nick Rubertino, the city鈥檚 public service director.
