All the frozen sections of the Yellow River, the second-longest river in China, entered the break-up period on Saturday, marking an end of the river's ice-jam flooding season.
Ice-jam floods are a common occurrence on the Yellow River in both early winter and spring when changing temperatures cause freezes and thaws. Such ice flows can damage or flood river banks and structures.
The ice regime in the Yellow River remained generally stable during this year’s ice-jam flooding season, with no major emergencies recorded, according to officials from China's Ministry of Water Resources.
"The characteristics of the ice regime in the river this year are as follows: The overall temperature is relatively high, with significant fluctuations; freeze-up occurred in the upper and middle reaches of the river, but the length of the freezing was relatively short; the freeze-up process in the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia section was slow, the ice layer was thin, and the increase in the channel storage was small," said Wang Zhangli, an official from the Department of Flood and Drought Disaster Prevention of the Ministry of Water Resources.
Moreover, the Ningxia-Inner Mongolia section entered the break-up period 11 days earlier than normal, and six days earlier than the average of the past decade.
The water resources authorities intensified monitoring and forecasting during this year's ice-jam flooding season. Using the "space-air-ground-water-engineering" integrated monitoring perception system, they tracked the information on ice floe density, freeze-up period length, and other ice regime conditions on a daily basis.
Over the thawing period, water level of major reservoirs along the river have been lowered, creating additional flood control storage capacity and ensuring the smooth passage of ice flows.
Yellow River thaws as ice-jam flooding season concludes
