Mitchell Gaines Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 We're getting social media reports of an ice jam along the Delaware river. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KamuSnow Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I found some pics - looks like lots of pieces from our freeze thaw cycles all collected together. The river level at Trenton is going up because of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plokoon111 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Yeah The Neshaminy Creek is iced up as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Cufrrently at 18.44' at Trenton. Minor flooding begins at 20'. Forecasted to begin dropping shortly...lets hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Gaines Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Flood warning for Bucks and Mercer due to the ice jam. This setup will likely not be well modeled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsentropicLift Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Flood warning for Bucks and Mercer due to the ice jam. This setup will likely not be well modeled. Do you expect any similar problems with some of the other rivers up north, like up into Morris County? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Gaines Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Do you expect any similar problems with some of the other rivers up north, like up into Morris County? One report of some ice building on the Raritan river still was flowing through the ice buildup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsentropicLift Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 One report of some ice building on the Raritan river still was flowing through the ice buildup. Any further possible flooding concerns with the expected rainfall this weekend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Gaines Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 Any further possible flooding concerns with the expected rainfall this weekend? Possible, but given the front will progressive and that rainfall will likely be under an inch, I think we're ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturn510 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 There is ice seen on the Raritan river in New Brunswick and Edison area. It doesnt look like complete ice cover but it is pretty ice filled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Photo from Twitter of the ice... i could be wrong but usually a "jam" is a bit more bunched up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophisticated Skeptic Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 still rising.. any reports on what's being done to alleviate the situation ? maybe dynamite ? could use one of them ice-breakers in Antarctica.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plokoon111 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Isn't the Trenton area super shallow? How would they even get it past the train bridge? "Sorry Mayor we have to blow up the north east corridor." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Years back, I remember them dynamiting ice on the river; I could hear it from my parents house. Pretty surreal. I'm not sure about depth 1 mile below the Route 1 bridge; I thought it was deeper there. Above the bridge (between the Route 1 bridge and the Calhoun Street Bridge) are the "Falls of the Delaware", where the river drops off the Fall Line between the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Its kinda shallow there with the rapids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophisticated Skeptic Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 not good considering their not expected to get above freezing until....Friday'ish. plus, the water upstream must be colder than what it's running into...so quick freezes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Years back, I remember them dynamiting ice on the river; I could hear it from my parents house. Pretty surreal. I'm not sure about depth 1 mile below the Route 1 bridge; I thought it was deeper there. Above the bridge (between the Route 1 bridge and the Calhoun Street Bridge) are the "Falls of the Delaware", where the river drops off the Fall Line between the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Its kinda shallow there with the rapids. Yep. I believe a mile below the Rt 1 bridge the river is tidally influenced, so the depths are certainly higher Here is the inundation mapping for the trenton gauge. You can see the shallow depths right above the gauge (the fall line) with the depths going deeper south of that point. I know for a fact that the river is certainly tidally influenced at the Rt 29 tunnel as I have seen the tidal changes as well as the wetland plants associated with the tidal fluctuations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophisticated Skeptic Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 ughh ohhz the race is on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbourton Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Photo from Twitter of the ice... i could be wrong but usually a "jam" is a bit more bunched up. Went down to the river at Washington's Crossing and the ice slabs were flowing freely. So by the looks of the picture at Trenton there is a dam just below the Calhoun Street bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Overhead shots from chopper 6 http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/gallery?section=weather&id=9385820&photo=14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NortheastBravest Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Nj.com article with pictures http://www.nj.com/weather-guy/index.ssf/2014/01/delaware_river_jammed_with_ice_forecasters_warn_of_sudden_flooding_when_water_buildup_is_released.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJ_Ken Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I am no expert but it appears that the ice flowing down the river is damming up against the bridges at Trenton. If we were dealing with excessive river flow along with the damming, that could be a potentially huge deal which could result in damage (or worse) to the bridges. Thankfully, that is not the case. Ironically enough, we discussed this literally a few days ago in a thread about how this had happened (ice dams against bridges coupled with insanely high river flows) in a number of places in PA during the late January 1996 thaw. Back then, a number of bridges were washed out as a result. Again, thankfully, that is not what is happening at Trenton now, and, since we do NOT have 30" of snow laying around waiting to flash melt like we did in '96, this is not likely to happen anytime soon either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I am no expert but it appears that the ice flowing down the river is damming up against the bridges at Trenton. If we were dealing with excessive river flow along with the damming, that could be a potentially huge deal which could result in damage (or worse) to the bridges. Thankfully, that is not the case. Ironically enough, we discussed this literally a few days ago in a thread about how this had happened (ice dams against bridges coupled with insanely high river flows) in a number of places in PA during the late January 1996 thaw. Back then, a number of bridges were washed out as a result. Again, thankfully, that is not what is happening at Trenton now, and, since we do NOT have 30" of snow laying around waiting to flash melt like we did in '96, this is not likely to happen anytime soon either. The USGS site shows the current flow at Trenton up to 130,000 cubic feet per second, and rising. Not sure if the ice jam can mess with the flow meter (knowing what I know of flow meters, probably), but that level is quite high Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
famartin Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 The USGS site shows the current flow at Trenton up to 130,000 cubic feet per second, and rising. Not sure if the ice jam can mess with the flow meter (knowing what I know of flow meters, probably), but that level is quite high Not sure how those work, but wonder if its just estimating flow based on the water level? Too lazy to look it up right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastonwx Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Lehigh River in Glendon (near Easton) Flood Warning for Ice jams...parts of Lehigh Drive are or may experience flooding http://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=PAZ062&warncounty=PAC095&firewxzone=PAZ062&local_place1=&product1=Flood+Warning#.Us3QbPZQ0u0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Not sure how those work, but wonder if its just estimating flow based on the water level? Too lazy to look it up right now I believe they use pressure to push a float inside the cylinder of the meter. As pressure increases, the force pushes the float upwards inside the cyclinder and a reading is then made. I suppose then, that the force is certainly higher now with the jam downstream, and thus reading as increased flow? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 most recent level at Trenton is 19.73' (was at or just under 20' an hour or so ago before retreating a bit). Now rising again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophisticated Skeptic Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 quite an idiosyncratic situation there. credit to the guys at Trenton so far though, keeping it below flood stage the last several hours.. wish we could get more details on what methods their using....if the jams are so close to bridges, the dynamite scenario seems out the window. temperatures below 20 all night tonight = bad. wow @ the big jump Easton took in the last 18 hours. 11 feet to 17 feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 quite an idiosyncratic situation there. credit to the guys at Trenton so far though, keeping it below flood stage the last several hours.. wish we could get more details on what methods their using....if the jams are so close to bridges, the dynamite scenario seems out the window. I can't imagine they are doing anything...just changes in levels from time to time due to ice shifting perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophisticated Skeptic Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I can't imagine they are doing anything...just changes in levels from time to time due to ice shifting perhaps. If the icing downstream is so bad already, I could understand them for not doing anything. But if not, they had all day to unplug this. (dynamite or other) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazwoper Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Here is story about the ice jam. Crazy! Ice not moving at all at Trenton! http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=9386317 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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