Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

The current warm temperatures have created some muddy situations in yards all over the Tri-States.

And with rain in the forecast we can expect the amount of standing water around our homes to increase.

Unfortunately, some of that water could make its way into your basement.

KHQA's Jarod Wells got some tips on how to avoid that.

Twenty plus inches of snow and a quick warm up has made for very wet ground.  Tim Cowman is the field superintendent for Tri-State Concrete Correction Company in Quincy. He says right now the ground is wet about eight feet down.

Cowman said,"Snow settles, you don't get a lot of runoff with snow. So it's going to make the ground even more saturated so people's basements are probably going to get wet."

Avoiding that is fairly simple.

Cowman said, "The main thing is to keep the water away from your house. You need to do things to keep that water running away. Eavestroughs, make sure that they're functioning. The down spouts, they're far enough away. A lot of times they're too short. They're dumping right at the edge of the house, you can't do that. You need to get it away."

If your basement has leaked before, it will probably leak again unless you get it fixed correctly.

Cowman said, "If you have cracks that have leaked sometime before, probably a good time to think about addressing them before you get a lot of them. Not only do you get water in, it can cause you walls to bow, then you have some real problems."

Many sump pumps have been working hard lately. It doesn't take a lot of work to maintain on them, but you need to keep them running well.

Cowman said, "The big thing is, it's probably going to last longer if it's running. Pumps seize because they don't run."

Experts recommend pouring some water down your sump pit every once in a while during dry months just to make sure your pump keeps working.

Join the conversation on Facebook.  Marie Allsup Anderson says the melting snow has filled her basement and "the sump pump wasn't working up to standard and yest the basement is wet."