Photo retrieved from: www.nationalgeographic.com
“At Natchez, Miss., about 60 miles downriver from Vicksburg, the Mississippi is at 12.72 feet, about 49 feet below what was the record high on May 19 of last year.
Mississippi’s Emergency Management Agency director,Robert Latham, said drought conditions are a part of what’s causing the low river level, but other factors also influence.
“When you look back at this past winter, one of the things that impacts us is the snow pack and the melt that causes the fluctuation in the river levels,” he said. “We didn’t have that snow pack that we had over a year ago.”
That snow pack to the west and north often dictates river levels as it melts because the ground at its source is saturated.
“Usually, this is the beginning of low water season, and we’re usually at about 20 (feet) right now,” said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale of the levels at Vicksburg.”
Read more: USA TODAY
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