An above normal snowpack at Eagle, has elevated concern that break up of the Yukon River there could result in ice jams and flooding. Longtime Eagle resident and National Weather Service observer John Borg says he last ventured out on the ice a week ago and measured
the thickness at 46 inches. He says that’s about normal for this time of year, and conditions have since deteriorated.
"The water along the bank is probably about 40 feet across. and it has come up enough so that the river has risen and we have cracks along the edge from the pressure of lifting the ice. But it's not tearing up anything yet."
Borg notes that the Forty Mile River upstream of Eagle went out earlier this week, and there are reports of water flowing over the Yukon River ice at Dawson City, and other upriver locations.
"Water came up at Fanning's Landing, which is about 25 miles above Eagle, but is hasn't made any impact here.”
Borg says the break up process is expected to slow as temperatures have cooled. The National Weather Service anticipates that the break up of the Yukon River at Eagle will be a few days earlier than the 40-year-average date of May 4th. Eagle suffered catastrophic flooding in spring 2009, when a rapid warming broke up thick river ice, which jammed downstream, and backed up water into the community.
