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Recent rains will help river levels in about a week

A weather expert says the large, wet weather system that is slowly moving across the U.S. will improve Mississippi River levels, at least for a little while.  Eric Snodgrass with Nutrien Ag Solutions tells Brownfield projections from the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey show river levels up substantially once the runoff reaches Memphis in just over a week. “They have projected, you know, possibly having the river back up there around one to three feet above low stage when this is done. That is a huge recovery. That means the river may come up ten feet at Memphis.”

Snodgrass says there’s a reason why this one weather system can help improve river levels. “This is going to matter, and the reason is it hit two basins, so it hit the Missouri basin and it also hit the upper Mississippi basin, and some of the rainfall totals have been pretty large, large enough that there will be runoff.”

Snodgrass says this weather event is good for the river system, but it won’t be enough rain to keep levels where they need to be. “We need it to be sustained. We’ve got to get more precipitation back in after this, believe it or not, just to keep this going in the right direction.”

Snodgrass says this system is expected to keep bringing rain to the south, and then he’s expecting alternating stretches of wet and dry weather through November.

Audio: Eric Snodgrass discusses the impact of the widespread rain system on the Mississippi River levels with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.