National Climatic Data Center, 13 February 2003

According to media reports (Associated Press, 1/15), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said a dry fall and below-normal temperatures in mid-January throughout the Upper Mississippi River basin have combined to lower the river to near-historic levels around St. Louis, Missouri. This has hampered barge traffic on the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois. On December 26, 1989, the river reached 5.1 feet below the preferred low-water mark, the lowest since the record of 6.1 feet under the mark, set January 16, 1940. The measurement is pegged to an arbitrary scale established during a dry spell in 1863 for the St. Louis stretch of the river.

The Missouri State Climatologist (Dr. Adnan Akyuz) has prepared a web page where additional information about drought impacts may be found: http://www.mcc.missouri.edu/impact.html