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Above normal snowpack to help replenish low river levels

Above normal snowpack in the Upper Midwest should help replenish levels on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. 

Iowa State Climatologist Justin Glisan says the outlook for river levels is improving with above average snowpack across the Missouri and Mississippi basins.

“Along with those precipitation events that we saw in December, we did see anywhere from a 15 to 20-foot increase just from those rainfall events in early December. So we do have the ingredients there for higher river levels given how dry the Upper Midwest has been over the last three years.”

Barge traffic along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers slowed in the fall because of low water levels, resulting in lower basis levels for farmers and less crop input movement.