Jamestown received a little more than 10 inches of precipitation in April and May combined, according to measurements taken at the North Dakota State Hospital.
It’s a mess, the result of a late snowmelt after a winter of heavy snow in the border country and record or near-record precipitation the past two months across the watershed.
Flooding near Oslo, Minnesota, has destroyed agricultural land, washed out their township roads and caused thousands of dollars of damage to a railroad line that carries cars filled with wheat to the West Coast and southern United States.
The Climate Prediction Center has been calling for a warmer and drier-than-normal weather pattern beginning in June, according to Allen Schlag, hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Bismarck.
Along with Burgum were Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard and director of the state Department of Emergency Services; North Dakota Homeland Security Director Darin Hanson and Department of Water Resources Director Andrea Travnicek.