A forecast update provided by our colleagues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center (LMRFC) is here.

Highlights from today’s update specific to the areas along the Mississippi River Ship Channel are reproduced below (listed in bold):

Minor flooding continues on the lower Mississippi River at Red River Landing, LA.  It has crested and should fall below flood stage by the middle of next week.  

Heavy rain over the past week has kept stages elevated on the lower Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, LA downstream to New Orleans, LA.  Drier weather is expected this weekend and falls upriver will allow stages to fall over the next several weeks. 

A minor rise is working down the middle Mississippi and lower Ohio Rivers.  No flooding is expected and the rises will dampen as they approach the junction with the Arkansas River.  The 16 day future rainfall guidance shows a minor rise on the lower Ohio River for the first week of June.  This rise is well below flood stage and it would only dampen falls on the lower Mississippi River.

The highest stage of 2021 to date on the Carrollton Gauge at New Orleans was a crest recorded of 15.44 feet at 1700 hours on April 16, 2021.

The Carrollton Gauge stage at 1400 hours today was 12.90 feet with a 24-hour change of + 0.22 feet.

Long range forecasts for the Carrollton Gauge indicate a slow fall down to 9.6 feet on June 18, 2021.

Please review the linked attachment for complete details as distributed by NOAA’s Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.