Would one of our DU experts please explain the reasons for

these devastating Mississippi floods this year for me.

It's the wrath of Jesus don't cha know........

No an explanation for an atheist is necessary :evilgrin:

But from what I have read, they had record snowfalls in states that surround the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Then after all these heavy spring rains, the ground was saturated and there was nowhere else for the water to go. Now it is headed down the Big Muddy.

:hi:

even here in Georgia we had record low temps and snowfalls.

My office was closed an entire week due to the snow.

You fucking nut!!

:hi:

:loveya:

Cincinnati normally gets ~35 inches of rain per year. It has been incredibly rainy this spring in these parts of the country. For that matter, it was incredibly *snowy* in March in Ohio.

My opinion is that warmer air and a warmer Gulf of Mexico means more water vapor in the air. That leads to unstable air and more rain. I blame it on climate change.

I have been rained out from yard work and reading about the Mississippi River all day.

Don't miss this: http://www.swmm2000.com/profiles/blogs/is-this-the-big-one-the-flood?xg_source=activity

at the upper end of the Mississippi this past winter combined with above average rains upstream.

:hi:

That means more snow melt, more ground water, and more run off!

First, we had a rainy wet fall which left the ground fairly saturated. Then winter came on with a bang -- major snowfalls, one after another for most of December and January. The snow cover persisted through March, and much of the snow that had fallen over the winter had a higher than usual moisture content.

The snow finally started melting, but temperatures stayed relatively low and it took a long time for the ground to thaw. That meant all the melting snow had to drain off on top of the ground since it couldn't sink into the ice-saturated soil. So, into the river systems it went -- and except for the Red River of the North, most of our main river drainages eventually empty into the Mississippi.

I had a huge drift of snow in one part of my yard that was over 8 feet high through most of the winter and didn't completely melt away until early April. My snow drift is probably helping flood Louisiana now. :(

sw

:hi:

in the Gulf of Mexico...

this week i had to turn on the air it was so hot and humid. this morning i had to turn on the heat...

I heartily recommend John Barry's book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America.
Exceptionally well written, much detail about the Mississippi and the attempts to control it.
It was in the book that I learned Herbert Hoover played an instrumental role in the late 20's, he was an engineer.
Had no idea.
If only he had stuck to engineering....

The southern and central states are getting hammered this year by weather.

Global climate change is a better descripter than global warming although global human industrial caused warming is a cause and symtom.

Human's modern industry, dominance of the planet, and mining of fossil fuels and use of fission creates weather extremes. The train has left the station.

Hoover was not a bad man. He was a mining engineer. He helped feed Europe post WWI. He had a local prescence where I grew up (a genberation before my birth) and now live in age. The only item I have ever purchased off Ebay was a picture of Hoover fly fishing for steelhead in the River riffle at my grandparent's resort in the early 1920s.

Likely POTUS Obama is analygous to POTUS Hoover in that they are products mostly of the status quo and an idealistic upbringing. Both my parents knew Hoover when he was on his true vacations and they were in their teens (plus my grandparents). They liked Ike but loved FDR. My Dad got into Reagan in old age who I hated but they were of the same age and hairstyle.

Thanks

It all ends up in the Mississippi and it has to go south:(

Location and quantity of heavy snow melt and rain.

Extra warm, moist air combining with the cold air during the winter brought about record amounts of snowfall; this saturated the ground as posters up thread have stated and the rains this spring had no where to go except downstream flooding the Mississippi.

:hi:

And it will get worse.

CheFC :rofl:

He doesn't like what you were thinking last night, in bed.

:rofl:

:rofl:

yesterday one storm dropped 3.7 inches of rain in dekalb county northern illinois. this week we had above normal temps and tomorrow may set a record for the lowest temps. it won`t be until next friday that the rain and low temps moderate.

the big problem is if anyone can get into the fields to plow and plant.

Floods are not a 2011 phenomenon.
The top 4 US death tolls all occured before 1937.
http://www.epicdisasters.com/index.php/site/comments/the_deadliest_us_floods

Deaths likely higher due to less communication.
On the other hand, I suppose as our population doubled over and over more should occur, but we'll be more alert to every incident due to improved communications.

ie: The Big One.

Dr. Jeff Masters is the co-founder of Weather Underground, an invaluable weather site:

The levees on the Lower Mississippi River are meant to withstand a “Project Flood”-- the type of flood the Army Corps of Engineers believes is the maximum flood that could occur on the river, equivalent to a 1-in-500 year flood. The Project Flood was conceived in the wake of the greatest natural disaster in American history, the great 1927 Mississippi River flood. Since the great 1927 flood, there has never been a Project Flood on the Lower Mississippi, downstream from the confluence with the Ohio River (there was a 500-year flood on the Upper Mississippi in 1993, though.) On Sunday , Major General Michael Walsh of the Army Corps of Engineers, President of the Mississippi Valley Commission, the organization entrusted to make flood control decisions on the Mississippi, stated: “The Project Flood is upon us. This is the flood that engineers envisioned following the 1927 flood. It is testing the system like never before.”
Good info at the link: ( below the headline and video)

http://www.swmm2000.com/profiles/blogs/is-this-the-big-one-the-flood?xg_source=activity

the mississippi river is going to be high water for awhile....

hurricane season.

Thank you all for the links

Seems like it has been one thing after another in the Gulf States.
The changing weather patterns are hard to ignore now, aren't they?

there is no climate change. It's AL Gore's propaganda until the disasters arrive. :evilgrin:

We had to control how much water was released from our reservoir to help the situation down there (how far away and still there is an effect!) We have a lot of flooding here, and the reservoir is almost at a record high. They finally started to release some water to relieve pressure on our dam, and that water (and water from all these reservoirs all over the north) will still be heading to the Mississippi River.

And it is still raining.

something new this year for the very first time, ever?

in the early 70s as well. Word is that this one is really, really bad and when a river is three miles wide when it is normally one mile, that is some flood.

There have been historic huge floods, the 1927 and 1973 ones comes to mind, also severe floods several times already this decade and in the 90's, but this one, caused by record setting rains and snow packs, is what they call the
500 year flood.
Problem is that "record breaking" weather is now becoming common.

edited to add: how could I have forgotten the 1993 flood...sheesh.

or we're going to see the return of several diseases if these folks don't receive help.

We build, rains/storms flood.
Over and over and over.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flood/deluge.html

China has had a particularly long and terrible history of flooding. In the last 2000 years, the Yangtze River has flooded more than 1000 times. But it is the Hwang Ho or "Yellow River" that has been responsible for China's most catastrophic floods. Three thousand miles long, it begins high above sea level in the northern mountain province of Qinghai and ends at the Yellow Sea. Westerners have dubbed it "China's Sorrow," because over the centuries it has killed more people than any other river in the world. In 1887 flooding killed nearly two million people, in 1931 the death toll was almost four million, and in 1938 it was almost one million.

Much of the problem stems from the high silt content of the river—in some stretches as much as 60% by weight. Millions of tons of yellow mud choke the channel, causing the river to overflow and change course. In its lower reaches, the river bed has actually become higher than the level of the surrounding countryside. Water is held in by dikes of ever increasing height, some reaching 30 feet and more.

:shrug:

the world is ending May 21. That's what the billboards say.

:rofl:

There are some here on DU that are so combative that they demand I document everything I say in triplicate from multiple sources...

Suffice it to say, you will have to research it yourself:

An undocumented reply...take it or leave it.

Water surface temperatures in the oceans from the equatorial regions down to the tropic of Capricorn have increased from 1 to 3 degrees above their median normal temperatures in the last 10 years.

This increase in surface temperature puts more water vapor into the atmosphere.

Once this increase of moisture hits the prevailing trade winds and then the jet stream, it causes a higher potential for extreme weather in the form of class 5 hurricanes, tornados, massive snow fall and ...wait for it...drought...drought you say? how could more moisture cause that? because the increased moisture content causes massive rainfall where there was moderate rainfall creating breaks in the cyclic pattern drenching some locations and parching others.

Expect it to get yearly worse before it gets better.

Global Climatic Change is occurring...whether it is enhanced via man made hydrocarbons or not I will not touch in this answer.

:shrug:

Feminists turned innocent Christian girls into witches. The floods are the direct result of the Witches' satanic, lesbian orgies.

Perry asked for rain in Texas didn't he?

Although I view it in a different context. And do hope that the blowing of levees to reduce the flooding does not have to continue.



Get Smart: Missed it by that much
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPwrodxghrw

:D