Ice Ice Baby

Vermont Public | By Patti Daniels,

Published February 26, 2015 at 12:00 PM EST

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A Montpelier Fire Department crew uses water from a fire hose to create soft spots in the river ice in hopes of reducing the chance of flooding from the Winooski River in Montpelier, Thursday, March 15, 2007.

Alden Pellett / AP

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Ice jams the river causing the Winooski River to flood into downtown Montpelier, in March 1992.

Toby Talbot / AP

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The Winooski River in Montpelier, a waterway that is prone to ice jams, seen in December 2008.

Toby Talbot / AP

Spring will eventually be here, along with the potential for ice jams and river flooding. On the next Vermont Edition, we learn about the conditions that cause ice jams, and how our rivers behave as winter turns to spring.

Our guests are Greg Hanson of the National Weather Service; Breck Bodwen, professor of watershed science at the University of Vermont; and Barb Farr, director of long term recovery for Waterbury.

Also in the program, are we predisposed to happy words? Two mathematicians at the University of Vermont, Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, share their analysis that human languages have a bias towards words with positive emotional meaning. We learn more about their research.

Broadcast live on Thurs., Feb. 26, 2015, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.