[Excessive rain fell on the 27th into the 28th over portions of northeast and east central North Dakota.  The Mayville, ND, radar showed most of the precipitation centered over the Devils Lake basin, with lesser amounts falling outward from that area.  Exact rainfall amounts were hard to come by, as many field observers did not have their raingauges up yet.  Also, neither the NDAWN (NDSU) or ARB (ND Atmospheric Resources Board) precipitation networks were active.  These networks are usually not activated until early April.  Therefore, the only amounts reported were generally from official NWS cooperative observers, who are not a very dense network (usually about 1 per county).  These cooperative observers reported amounts up to about 2.50 inches across the Cooperstown, Petersburg, Devils Lake, Cavalier, Adams, and Grafton areas.  However, people in the heavier rain area did report buckets or objects outside with upwards of 3 to 4 inches of rain in them.  Therefore, rain amounts were generally estimated to be in the 1 to 5 inch range across northeast and east central ND.  Being late March, soil surface and subsurface temperatures were around and mostly below freezing.  Areas along and north of US Highway 2 still had some snow cover, which was readily apparent on visible satellite imagery in the days leading up to this event.  The warm rain falling on top of snow led to even more water being released.  Snow depths and water equivalents are usually performed by official NWS cooperative observers every monday in the spring, while there is still snow on the ground.  On the previous monday (the 22nd), Cooperstown reported a snow water equivalent of 2.85 inches and Cavalier reported a snow water equivalent of 1.96 inches.  Some melting had occurred in the days leading up to March 27th, but most of this water was still in place as ice or snow.  Snow depths on the 27th ranged from a trace to 9-14 inches around the Langdon area.  Along with the frozen ground temperatures, river channels in the area still had their winter ice covering left.  This led to an ice jam threat.  Snow and ice also clogged culverts and drainage ditches.  Temperatures on the 27th were above freezing, mostly in the 40s over the heavy rain area, while southeast ND rose into the mid 60s.  Temperatures stayed above freezing until the morning of the 29th, but even this was too late to slow the moving water.]  For Ramsey county, there was basement flooding at several homes in the city of Devils Lake.  Crary reported 3 flooded buildings and a flooded city park.  Overland flooding was rampant around the Webster area, where water flowed over roads nearly all directions from town.  County-wide, one farmstead was completely cutoff and a total of 12 roads were blocked off.  Coulees feeding into Devils Lake ran above capacity.  Devils Lake started rising immediately.  The lake level was around 1446.56 feet on the 27th.  By the 28th, the level increased to 1446.76 feet.  Then, from the 28th on, the lake continued a steady rise toward the previous high of 1448.30 feet (which occurred on July 21, 2001).  Projections were for this previous high to be exceeded.  Flooding above this previous high is projected to be extremely expensive, with each foot of additional rise expected to cause about $30 million in damages.

Flood in RAMSEY, NORTH DAKOTA
From 27-MAR-04 14:50:00 to 31-MAR-04 23:59:00 (CST)
Reported by: NEWSPAPER