The Climate Prediction Center of the NWS has released their latest forecast for January and for the series of 3-month periods starting with January-March. The forecast for January (first map, top panels) in Illinois is non-committal with “equal chances” of above, below, and near-normal temperature and precipitation across the state. We are sandwiched between wetter […]
Category: Drought
Drought and Barge Traffic on the Mississippi River
On Saturday, the US Corps of Engineers began releasing water from Lake Carlyle (east of St. Louis), which flows down the Kaskaskia River into the Mississippi River near Thebes. They kept the water level higher than usual on Lake Carlyle this fall, in anticipation of this move. As the article below states, it’s a short-term […]
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Why the Low Water Levels on the Mississippi River
There has been much concern with the low river stages on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Cairo, IL, and what that means for barge traffic, for example here and here. How bad is it? The first graph shows the river stage at Chester, IL, from January 2011 to present. The river was actually […]
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South-central Illinois Drought Free
The latest US Drought Monitor map shows an expanded area in south-central Illinois that is completely drought-free at this point (7% of the state). In general, that area has received 8 to 16 inches of rain since August 1, which is about 4 to 8 inches above normal. The largest station total was 23.38 inches […]