There were many factors that led to a severe Spring flood melt along the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers and several of their tributaries during the last two weeks of March. The first factor was above average snowpack, especially over the Minnesota River Valley for mid March. Additionally, the added effect of a cold late Winter kept this snowpack deeper into the early Spring. Once temperatures warmed, and snow began to melt, a few storms, especially around the 12-13th of March, led to additional water on the already heavy snowpack. As area rivers, streams and creeks began to thaw, ice jams developed, which led to more areal flooding beyond the flooded river beds.
Area streams, creeks, and mainstem rivers started to break up their Winter ice the second week of March, with a sharp rise in these basins during the three week sof March as the storm system around the 12th and 13th of March led to the ripening of the snowpack. Although most of the mainstem rivers along the Minnesota River crested the last week of March, flood waters continued into April. The Mississippi River crested after the last week of March, from St. Paul and points downstream.
During the third week of March, the Minnesota Department of Transportation started to close roads along mainstem rivers. County roads were already impacted as flood waters started to spread out across counties from melted snow and recent rainfall from storms.
There were numerous counties in southern and western Minnesota which were declared disaster areas due to the flooding. They included Chippewa, Lac Qui Parle, Martin, and Yellow Medicine.