It's official: Record June runoff to swollen Missouri River (Reuters)

OMAHA, Neb (Reuters) – It has been obvious for a while from flooding downstream but now it is official: The swollen Missouri River received a record amount of rainfall and snowmelt runoff in June.

The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers said in a report released on Friday that June runoff into the river was 13.8 million acre-feet of water, topping the previous record set in 1952. It was the most runoff since the agency began keeping records in 1898.

What's more, the combined total runoff for May and June fell just short of the normal total runoff for an entire year.

Record water releases to relieve pressure on six reservoirs from Montana through South Dakota have strained flood defenses along the Missouri River and continued to breach a few levees downstream.

(Reporting by Kyle Peterson and David Hendee; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Swollen Mississippi River sets record high at Natchez, Mississippi and still rising

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May 11, 2011 ARCHIVES  |  Weather  |  NEWS

Linda Young - AHN News Writer

Tunica, MS, United States (AHN) - The swollen Mississippi River has residents of Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana bracing for the inevitability of flooding now that the flood crest has passed Memphis.

Flood stage is 37 feet at Memphis and the Mississippi River crested at 47.8 feet on Tuesday, just shy of a 1937 record.

Rain and snowmelt along the river and its tributaries has resulted in one of the worst flood events since the 1937 flood for many towns along its 2,320-mile course.

Some 3 million acres of land are under floodwater in Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Some farmers have lost their crops for the year.

Flood stage is 48 feet in Natchez, Mississippi where a new water level record of 58.3 feet was set Wednesday morning with the river still rising and forecasts calling for it to crest in that city at 64 feet.

Meanwhile, the Mississippi River reached flood stage of 17 feet in New Orleans today, but the flood crest is not expected to reach that city for several more weeks.

Copyright 2011 by (AHN)
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