Flooding of the Mississippi River during April 2001

Close-ups of the flooding and additional image formats are available.

The Mississippi River, from its source at Lake Itasca Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico is approximately 2348 miles long. Over the course of it's history, the mighty river has flooded many times. The largest flood recorded in the lower valley occurred in 1927 and the largest in the upper Mississippi in 1993. In April 2001 another flooding event in the upper Mississippi was recorded by the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard the Terra satellite.

This set of images are from MISR's nadir (vertical) camera on March 26 (Terra orbit 6762), April 18 (Terra orbit 7097) and April 27 (Terra orbit 7228). The images illustrate the effect of snowmelt and heavy rainfalls on the Upper Mississippi River area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois.

In the images above, the Mississippi travels diagonally from upper left to lower right from approximately La Crosse, Wisconsin to Davenport, Iowa. The Wisconsin River travels diagonally from the upper right of the images, joining the Mississippi just south of Praire du Chien. On March 26, snow can clearly be seen over much of the northern portions of the image. By April 18 (center image), the snow has melted and heavy rainfalls have swollen the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. In the early morning of April 25, the river crested in Davenport, Iowa at 22.32 feet, only a fraction of an inch less than in 1993. By April 27 the Mississippi has swollen significantly and the Wisconsin has receded.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.