At Quad Cities, the National Weather Service is now predicting a slightly lower peak than Monday’s forecast. And it will come a little sooner.

Wilson keeps a close eye on the river in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and talks to his colleagues there regularly.

“We’re collecting more data from the north and LaCrosse, and they see their peaks are a few tenths of a foot lower. And they’re coming in about half a day or so earlier. So we adjusted the timing. Our peaks go up a bit and our peaks drop are just ‘kicks’ in the areas where we’re forecasting peaks right now.”

The river at Lock and Dam 15 in the Quad Cities is forecast to start rising about 6.6 feet, or 21.6 feet, above floodwater on Monday. That was one tenth lower than Monday’s forecast. After that, the water is expected to rise a little more in a few days. (See peak/time table above.)

Wilson also hopes Mississippi doesn’t stay aloft for long. The current forecast is that it will peak between May 1 and 3.