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Flooding in the Missouri/Mississippi/Ohio River basins

By Scott Bachmeier •

Aqua MODIS false-color RGB images on 19 December 2015 and 02 January 2016 [click to enlarge]

Aqua MODIS false-color RGB images on 19 December 2015 and 02 January 2016 [click to enlarge]

A comparison of 250-meter resolution Aqua MODIS false-color Red/Green/Blue (RGB) images from the SSEC MODIS Today site on 19 December 2015 and 02 January 2016 (above) showed large increases in the width of portions of the Missouri/Mississippi/Ohio Rivers (as well as many of their tributaries and surrounding lakes) during that 14-day period. These false-color images use MODIS bands 7/2/1 as the R/G/B components — water appears as varying shades of darker blue. Some light snow cover (shades of cyan) can also be seen in the upper left corner of the 02 January image.

A comparison of Aqua MODIS true-color (created using bands 1/4/3) and false-color (created using bands 7/2/1) RGB images on 02 January (below) demonstrated the advantage of the false-color imagery for detection of the extent of river and lake flooding. The high sediment content of the area lakes and rivers made them appear as varying shades of tan to brown on the true-color image, making their boundaries more difficult to distinguish from the similar shades of the surrounding bare ground surfaces. (Note: when GOES-R is launched in late 2016, similar spectral bands on the ABI instrument will allow the creation of these types of true-color and false-color RGB images)

Aqua MODIS true-color and false-color RGB images on 02 January 2016 [click to enlarge]

Aqua MODIS true-color and false-color RGB images on 02 January 2016 [click to enlarge]

A more detailed view of flooding across the eastern portion of the MODIS images (in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky) was provided by 30-meter resolution Landsat-8 false-color imagery, as visualized using RealEarth (below). A magnified view of the Evansville, Indiana / Owensboro, Kentucky area can be seen here.

Landsat-8 false-color image [click to enlarge]

Landsat-8 false-color image [click to enlarge]

Maps of total observed precipitation and departure from normal (below) during the same 14-day period as the 2 MODIS false-color images shown at the top of the blog post revealed that widespread areas received upwards of 8-10 inches of rainfall, which was 6-8 inches above normal for that 2-week period of time.

19 December 2015 to 02 January 2016 total precipitation and departure from normal [click to enlarge]

19 December 2015 to 02 January 2016 total precipitation and departure from normal [click to enlarge]

As a result of water runoff from the heavy precipitation, new records for maximum river gauge height were set for the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri and Thebes, Illinois (below).

River gauge plot for the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri [click to enlarge]

River gauge plot for the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri [click to enlarge]

River gauge for the Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois [click to enlarge]

River gauge for the Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois [click to enlarge]

Additional information is available from the NWS Paducah.

Categories: GOES-R, Heavy rain / flooding, Hydrology, Landsat, MODIS, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images