The National Weather Service in the Grand Forks, North Dakota reports the Red River remains mostly frozen all the way to its origins, south of Fargo. Flood Forecaster Greg Gust says the cool weather is delaying the start of the expected flood waters.

"The ice is heaving, there's water moving on top of it, there's ice rising, but at this point, coming into Wahpeton-Breckenridge and then from there north to Fargo, all of those river channels are just barely starting to wake up and heave from the increasing local run-off. We do not have open flow yet in the ditch network or in those rivers."

Gust notes while the snowpack is going down, the ground is still mostly frozen so the meltwater is sitting on the surface as slush and ice.

"All of the water that we were talking about for the past few weeks, it's still there, it's not soaked in, it has not disappeared, it has not gone away. It's just got to get out of that iceberg, slush pile and through those ditches and into the rivers. It's still there and the prospects are still pretty high that it's going to be a big run-off."

Gust adds a continued gradual spring thaw is the best scenario but cautions that there is still an awful lot of water to come down the Red River towards Manitoba.