- Drought has again closed a portion of the Mississippi River -- and this time shrunk a part of the major US waterway in Memphis to its lowest level ever.
According to media reports and Bloomberg article published on October 18, 2022, waters in Memphis fell to a reading of negative-10.77 feet, narrowly lower than the previous low of negative-10.70 set in 1988, according to National Weather Service data.
Drought and extreme weather are straining global trade across parts of the globe. The Mississippi and the Rhine River in Europe have shrunk this year, and a La Nina weather pattern has contributed to severe flooding in Pakistan and Australia. On the Mississippi, shipping costs for barges have surged and thousands of boats have been delayed at low-water stretches.
The river was closed Monday about 125 miles (201 kilometers) northeast of Memphis, near Hickman, Kentucky, for dredging to remove debris from the river bottom. There were three vessels and 51 barges waiting in the queue at Hickman, according to the US Coast Guard. It was closed earlier this month near Stack Island, Mississippi.
“We are seeing some signs of a little bit of rainfall with the cold fronts working their way through, but nothing that will get us out of the low-water situation,” said Jeff Graschel, a hydrologist at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.
