BATON ROUGE — The Mississippi River is starting 2026 on a low note, with water levels slightly below average. Despite Louisianans just recently seeing low water levels, the reason behind it has been building for years.
“Very little, and I mean only a tiny fraction of the rain that falls in Louisiana gets into the Mississippi River,” State Climatologist Jay Grymes explained. “It’s really all about how much rain falls essentially north of Natchez. And it has been a dry couple of years north of Natchez.”
50% to 55% of the water that comes down the Mississippi comes out of the Ohio Valley, which has been very dry. According to the U.S. drought monitor, most of the country is considered to be ‘abnormally dry’ or seeing ‘moderate drought.’…