Record snowfall in the mountains above the Missouri and Platte rivers has contributed to flooding along both rivers. With the official start of summer only days away, much of the snow has yet to melt. Highway 130 in the Snowy Range between Laramie and Saratoga in southern Wyoming didn't open until June 10, two weeks later than scheduled. This photo was taken Monday, June 13, 2011. CHRISTINE PETERSON / Casper Star-Tribune

By PETER SALTER, Lincoln Journal Star
17 June 2011 […] This is the headwaters of the Missouri River — and the source this summer of so much Nebraska pain. But this isn’t where the flood begins. The flood begins higher up, at places like Dark Horse Lake in the Bitterroots, where another 2 inches of snow fell late this week, landing on the 8 feet still on the ground. And when hot weather finally reaches those upper elevations — starting next month — all of that snow will melt and flow and become, eventually, the floodwaters threatening Sioux City and Omaha and Plattsmouth and so many other river towns downstream. “It’s all starting here,” said Jim Brusda with the National Weather Service in Great Falls, Mont. “It’s going to flow back down there toward Nebraska.” […] “People who have been here 50 years, 70 years, say they haven’t seen anything like this,” Gay said. “All small streams, creeks are full. There are towns that are flooded and cut off. And there’s a lot of water to come.” The snow-water equivalent in some areas is 400 percent; meaning, snow that usually is 2 feet deep this time of year is 8 feet, something that happens maybe once every 50 years, Brusda said. And as the snow-fed Missouri crosses Montana, it’s collecting record rainfall, too. Some areas received 10 inches in three weeks; 3 inches fell on a town in northeast Montana between Thursday and Friday. The rain is expected to continue through the weekend. An even stronger storm system could surface next week. “And all that water — because the ground is so saturated — is going to flow into the Missouri,” Brusda said. “And that’s the unfortunate part.”

Dear Nebraska: Sorry about water, but more on the way. Love, Montana