Here it comes - Melting snowpack floods Merced River in California's Yosemite National Park

CBS San Francisco
Wed, 10 May 2017 19:34 UTC

© National Park Service

The Pohono Bridge over the Merced River in in Yosemite National Park in January 2017.

The river running through Yosemite National Park briefly flooded its banks and a sheriff in California's Central Valley organized an airdrop of feed for 30 cows stranded downstream by rising waters as a heat wave melts record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.

The National Weather Service says the Merced River should reach flood stage for a second-straight night Wednesday under the park's iconic Pohono Bridge. Cooling temperatures Thursday and through the weekend will slow the melt and ease the flooding.

The park reported soggy campgrounds but little damage.

The Fresno Bee reported Wednesday that the Merced County sheriff used the department's helicopter to drop two tons of hay on a river island where 30 cows have been stranded since January. Each cow has dropped about 300 pounds in weight.