Satellite Images of the Lower Mississippi Floods

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NASA have published images of the overflowing Lower Mississippi, taken on 11 January 2016.

The Mississippi became swollen after the floodwater from upstream moved south. In late December, 2015, heavy rain have caused several rivers to overflow in Missouri, Arkansas and Illinois, causing widespread damage.

By 11 January 2016, when the image below was taken, river gauge observations for the Mississippi River in Natchez, Mississippi, showed that the river stood at about 16.5 meters (54 feet)which is about 2 meters above flood stage.

At that time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway near New Orleans in preparation for the southward-moving floodwater. This was the 11th time in history that it had been opened. Last time was during the record floods of 2011. The spillway was erected in 1931 to control flooding in the Lower Mississippi Valley by diverting water to Lake Pontchartrain.

The images below were captured with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

Flooding of the Lower Mississippi, 11 January 2016. Image: NASA
Flooding of the Lower Mississippi, 11 January 2016. Image: NASA
Before the floods - the same area on 24 January, 2015. Image: NASA
Before the floods – the same area on 24 January, 2015. Image: NASA

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