(Adds information about impact on farms in paragraphs 8 and 9) WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Deep snow and heavy rains have elevated the risk for serious flooding in parts of the U.S. Midwest, especially in the Red River Valley region of North Dakota, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday. Floods in the upper Midwest could rival high water levels seen in 2006 and possibly 1997, NOAA said. "We are looking at a situation with all the ingredients for near-record flooding in the upper Midwest," said Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, in a release. In the Red River Valley, flooding poses an imminent and serious threat and will begin next week, the forecasters said, noting the crest of the river could be among the top five highest levels on record. Local officials and emergency managers in the area are preparing their communities, Hayes said. The Red River runs north, dividing North Dakota and Minnesota, before running through the flat southern plains of the Canadian province of Manitoba. In 1997, it overflowed its banks, displacing about 50,000 Americans and 29,000 Canadians in small towns, farms and cities. More than 1 million acres (0.4 million hectares) of wheat, soybeans and other crops on the U.S. side of the valley could go unplanted this spring, analysts said. [ID:nN19436678] "We're set up for some pretty big problems for farmers getting their crops in the ground. We have a very short window to plant and grow the crop," said Dale Ihry, an official with the U.S. Agriculture Department in North Dakota. Flooding at the Canadian end of the valley will be severe but will not be as bad as 1997, officials in Manitoba said earlier this week. [ID:nN16514543] Farmland and a major highway may be under water for three weeks, Manitoba officials said. DROUGHT IN U.S. SOUTH TO PERSIST THROUGH JUNE Drought gripping Texas, California, the Southeast and Wisconsin is expected to persist through June with "limited areas of improvement," NOAA said. Drought could also develop from northern Virginia to New Jersey if dry weather continues. Recent rains brought some relief to Texas and Northern California, but water levels in reservoirs are much below average and spring runoff is forecast to be below average, the NOAA said. Texas and some parts of Florida had the driest winter on record. In April, much of the U.S. Southwest and South will be drier than normal during April, but the lack of rainfall will shift to the U.S. Northwest in coming months, the National Weather Service said on Thursday. [ID:nN19EATHER] The weather will be warmer than normal for much of the U.S. Southwest and south-central states through June, forecasters said. Below-average temperatures will span west from Montana to Oregon and extend north to include much of Alaska. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Michael Hirtzer and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
A view of part of the Dead Sea north of Ein Gedi August 9, 2007. Warnings continue that the Dead Sea is slowly but surely drying up, and could be gone ...
