A Little Rain on the Jordan Creek Trail

My view from work at the incoming storm.

From now until October I will be taking the Jordan Creek Trail on my commute home.  Clive is resurfacing the Greenbelt.  I hope it will be a dry period of time.  Today it rained 1.5" during the first storm.

I was on the trail when the second squall hit.  Fortunately, the 50 mph winds did not accompany this cloud.  I was close to my turn onto the JCT and I thought I could duck underneath the underpass and wait it out.  I had to settle for a tree.  The underpass was flooded.  WTF?  Every other river and creek in the metro had settled down.  We have not had much rain lately until today.  I continued on when the rain calmed.

One of many flooded underpasses on the Jordan Creek Trail

The next underpass, 50th St, is located further away from Jordan Creek and thus was not flooded.  The one after that was reaching river width but a service road appeared and I climbed up that to the street.

I really do not understand what is going on with Jordan and Walnut creeks or the Raccoon river lately.  All I can think of is that water has nowhere to go so it runs off into the waterways asap.  Is this because the ground is saturated or because there is too much development?  Or both?

Much later on the trail I saw a WDM Parks truck so I stopped and talked to the driver.  He said that Jordan Creek rises and falls very quickly and that the underpasses do tend to fill up during the rise cycle.  He said the first storm was only an inch and a half.

Looking at the trail from above.  The creek is angry.

So if it rains while I am at work, prepare for detouring.  With the JCT I can always get on the sidewalk and avoid the underpasses.