An ice jam on the Yukon River below Eagle has released. National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb said the jam in place since Tuesday, broke up early this morning.
“Around 2:45 this morning, the jam, about 10 miles down-river near Calico Bluff released and a resident down there said the water dropped and the ice is moving fast and free right now,” Plumb said.
Plumb says about 50 miles of the river are open, before ice cover resumes upstream of Circle.
“So the next concern is that large surge of water now moving down toward where the river flattens out and it becomes a lot more braided,” said Plumb. “Circle is more prone to ice jam flooding than Eagle.”
Plumb says a river watch teams plans to overfly the Yukon today to survey ice conditions in the Circle area and farther downstream at Ft. Yukon
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
