Yellowstone sees record flooding, closes

NPS/Courtesy Photo
Record-high water levels on the Yellowstone River and flooding on rivers throughout the park caused Yellowstone National Park to close all five of its entrances Monday. The flooding led to power and water outages and extensive damage to roads and bridges.
The park will remain closed to inbound visitation through Wednesday, and superintendent Cam Sholly said in a statement officials will not know when the park can reopen until flood waters subside and they can assess the damage. The park expects more rain over the next several days.
Two recordings of a house in Gardiner, Montana, falling into the Yellowstone River on Monday went viral. Sholly said in his statement Monday that the park was working to evacuate all visitors and provide support to isolated communities like Gardiner, which was without water and power.
Don Day, a Wyoming meteorologist, said on his DayWeather Podcast on Tuesday that heavy rain and melting snow caused the Yellowstone flooding.
“This is a culmination of events,” Day said. “By the time we got to the weekend, all the stars lined up.”
Multiple showers and thunderstorms hit Yellowstone over the last week, and the area saw around 16 inches of precipitation over the last two months, including some late-season snow. The rain and snow, combined with summer heat over the weekend, caused the intense flooding, according to Day.
Rocky Mountain National Park experienced less-severe flooding Sunday and Monday caused by melting snowpacks. The most recent Facebook update from the park included closures for two roads, two trails and a bridge.

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