It's Feast Or Famine On The Mississippi River: From Too Low Water To Major Flood

Mississippi River floodwaters surround a ballpark in
Davenport, Iowa this week has another major 
flood crests its way down the northern half of the river.

 Last autumn, long stretches of the Mississippi River were at near record low levels, thanks to drought in much of its immense drainage basin.  

Fast forward to now, and we have the opposite problem: Parts of the river are at major flood stage. 

A flood crest has been moving down the Mississippi through Minnesota and down into Iowa and has been cresting this week. 

In late April, the river crested at 15.89 feet, the highest since 2001, says ABC News. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the river reached its highest level since a substantial flood in 2019.  

The flood crest on Monday at Davenport, Iowa was the eighth highest on record for the Mississippi.  That comes just four years after an even higher crest flooded swaths of that city's downtown.  Water broke through some of flood defenses in 2019, causing enormous damage in and around downtown Davenport. 

So far, flood defenses have held around Davenport and other Iowa cities along the Mississippi. But the battle against the river has forced businesses and streets to close, and some people to evacuate homes as a precaution. It's no picnic. 

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued disaster proclamations for 15 counties to help residents respond to the Mississippi River flooding, says ABC. 

It looks like the Mississippi crested at Davenport on Monday and is slowly receding. There could be a second crest if heavy rains develop in the upper Midwest.  Forecasts over the next week call for moderate amounts of rain so they should be OK.

Flood warnings along the Mississippi extend southward to just north of St. Louis.  Below St. Louis, the river gets bigger, so the contribution of snow melt water in the river is less of an influence. But the water will still run high all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Heavy rains could cause flooding later in the spring and summer below St. Louis. 

The high water is disrupting and closing off barge traffic along the Mississippi in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois and soon, possibly Missouri.  Last autumn's low water also disrupted barge traffic. 

You can't win.  

The flooding this year can mostly be blamed on snow, not rain.  The winter brought amazing amounts of snow to areas around the very upper reaches of the river and its tributaries in and near Minnesota. Duluth had its snowiest winter on record. Minneapolis had its third snowiest.  Pretty much all that snow melted in late March and April, and here we are with the resulting flood.