Water being released from large lakes to boost flow in Mississippi River, which hit record low at Memphis last week

The Mississippi River, at left, is being replenished by releases from two big lakes 
not far upstream. (Murray State University Hancock Biological Station map, adapted)

Across the country, many river systems have dwindled to historically low levels, so some lakes are being lowered to increase streamflow, even more than is usual in October. "This past week the Tennessee Valley Authority announced it was releasing water from the Kentucky Dam" on the Tennessee River, Todd Neeley of DTN/The Progressive Farmer reports. "According to the TVA Facebook page, special water releases were scheduled from the Tennessee River and Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River. The releases were being done with the hope of stabilizing conditions on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers."

Neeley asks what many people are now wondering: "How much rain would it take to replenish the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri rivers? . . . The falling river levels come at a time when farmers are harvesting grain and shipping to market, raising questions about what it all means for agriculture."

In times of drought, weather patterns and history are used to glean ideas of how to manage ongoing dryness, Jeffrey Graschel, service coordination hydrologist at the National Weather Service's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, told Neeley: "From Memphis to New Orleans, water levels are as low as they've been since 2012. . . . It is hard to compare records from the 1800s, early 1900s because of levees, channel improvements and addition of dams which make stage levels different from the modern era."

In West Tennessee, where the river is at a record low, farmers are unable to ship their crops because of low river levels, Anita Wadhwani of Tennessee Lookout reports: "John Dodson’s corn, cotton and soybean fields lie fewer than 10 miles from the Mississippi . . . but they might as well be a thousand." Dodson told her, “I haven’t ever seen this before. We have the Mississippi right on our back doorstep and we’ve always been able to rely on it.”