Michigan Weather Strikes Again: Flooding

The weather has been strange again. I suppose it's not really strange for Michigan, but it is strange for weather. When discussing strange weather, the "strange" aspect of it is automatically negated if you're discussing it relative to Michigan. Our weather is never steady, ever changing, and always full of surprises. Between Friday and Saturday's rains we have had serious flooding in our area. The rivers Rouge and Huron are beyond their banks, the Rouge overtaking the roads and parks in many local areas.

It's not atypical around here to have spring flooding, but I admit I've never seen it come so early. Because the ground is still frozen the water has nowhere to go so it collects in vast pools wherever it can. The farmer's field in front of our house is graded to flow right into the old orchard, and so it wasn't long before the water began to add up.

A quick walk to the edge of the water showed me that my location for the muck pile is definitely less than ideal if this is how our springs are going to be. All of those wonderful nutrients were leaching right into the water, flowing down into the orchard to fertilize the weeds, I'm sure.

By late Saturday, the water had formed a small lake, nearly encompassing our driveway, and I estimate that it was at least 48" deep in some places. It was hard to keep the dogs from venturing out into the water, but they're terrible swimmers so I managed to convince them that the freezing cold water was not a good idea.

Sunday produced freezing temperatures, and it was especially cold overnight night, and so this morning I ventured out to find a frozen lake of ice, ripe for exploration. The water has fallen by at least 24" at this point, so there is little chance of me falling in to a dangerous depth.

I wish I'd been able to snap more photos, but my camera battery chose this morning to go all wimpy on me.

---
Has the winter been typical where you live, or have you had some interesting surprises?