File:Flooding on the Mississippi River (MODIS 2019-01-29).jpg

English: A wet, warm winter over the Mississippi River drainage basin caused significant flooding in January 2019. On January 9, rising waters and impending rain caused Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards to issue a declaration for a state of emergency for eight parishes. As the river continued to rise, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks closed large areas of at-risk land to all hunting except for waterfowl. As of January 28 the following remain closed: Zone 2B (lands in Sharkey, Humphreys, Yazoo, Issaquena, and Warren counties) and Lake George, Twin Oaks, and Sunflower Wildlife Management Areas. In the same area, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife also closed Panther Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Brown Tract in Delta National Forest, and all roads on Sunflower Wildlife Management Area.

Spring flooding is common along the river, thanks to expected rains and the northern snowmelt. This is the second time in three years that the lower Mississippi River has seen flooding in January.

On January 24, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of the lower Mississippi River from just above Memphis, Tennessee to New Orleans, Louisiana. False-color uses infrared and visible light to help distinguish certain features – in this case the dark blue of water stands out dramatically from the bright green vegetation. Cloud appears white or bright blue.

The meandering river appears quite wide along most of its length, especially near Natchez, Mississippi where the river clearly broadens out of its banks. On January 28 the National Weather Service (NWS) advised that the Mississippi River was at 50.2 feet at Natchez, with flood stage at 48.0 feet. The Flood Warning continues for Natchez until February 13.

Although the flooding is clearly visible in this image, a comparison to an image acquired on a more typical January day starkly illustrates the impressive amount of water currently in the Mississippi River. A roll-over comparison between this image and a MODIS image acquired on January 24, 2018 is available here