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• The decision on whether to shorten the season will be made on July 1, based on the volume of water stored in the Missouri River reservoir system.
• Typically, the corps releases enough water to allow barges to navigate the river until Dec. 1. This year, that could end as soon as early November if the drought worsens.
• While the drought persists in most of the river basin that covers large parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, recent rains and snow have improved drought conditions in the basin, said Doug Kluck, regional climate services director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Temperatures should remain below normal for the next two weeks and the region could see more precipitation through the end of March, Kluck said. But temperatures in the late spring and summer are expected to be above normal, and experts are unable to predict whether the region will get more or less precipitation than normal in that time.
• "We're really not able to key on any strong climate signal that would help us narrow that down," Kluck said. "As time goes on, we'll be able to do a little bit better."
• The unpredictability of spring rains has plagued the corps before. Melting snow and heavy rains in 2011 led to historic flooding along the Missouri River. The onslaught lasted for more than 100 days, flooding farmland in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. Only a year later, the same area was plagued by drought.
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