SIOUX CITY (KTIV) - On Wednesday, we showed you how the Missouri River, in Sioux City, had frozen over (see below).

Now river levels on the Missouri are rising. Monday morning, the National Water Prediction Service registered the Missouri River at just over 6 feet. On the morning of Thursday, Feb. 20, the river level was over 13 feet. Thankfully, the flood stage is 30 feet.

We spoke with National Weather Service Hydrologist Andrew Kalin about what this ice could mean for those along the river.

Kalin said that the ice we’re seeing isn’t completely a full ice jam.

“A true ice jam would be some sort of obstruction of the river from ice, basically creating a dam-like structure, large chunks of ice completely obstructing the flow of water through the river,” he said. “Whereas this is just a large section of the river from just north of Omaha to near Ponca now that has frozen up.”

Thankfully, Kalin said that the threat of flooding is low thanks to low water levels currently on the Missouri River.

“Right now the concern for any flooding is pretty low just because the river level is so low,” explained Kalin. “So, for instance at Sioux City, we have almost 20 feet until we hit flood stage. Quite a bit of what we call ‘free border’ or extra space before we would see flooding.”

Kalin also said that while the threat is low, it’s not zero.

“Anytime there is ice in the river, there’s always the chance of an ice jammer or flooding,” he added.

Ice jams may still form on some of the smaller rivers in the area.

“Smaller rivers, or east-to-west running rivers sometimes cause more ice jam issues just because the melt happens all at once. Whereas a north-south river, at least in the Sioux City area for the Missouri, the melting starts downstream and kind of works its way upstream,” said Kalin.

If you see flooding in your area over the next week as rivers melt, please send reports, photos or video to [email protected].

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