DRY AUTUMN

 

It’s increasingly common here. Autumn has been very warm and dry. Officially, we are in moderate to severe drought. The leaves turn brown and just fall. The only way to get some color may be putting them right in front of the setting sun.  

Unfortunately, there are strong storms predicted for Saturday, the day of our nationwide No Kings protests. I really want to document it. We’ll see.            

LOW WATER

I drove down onto the levee by the Mississippi to get a closer view of what's going on. During busier periods, particularly summer, the levee is used for parking. You can just see the faint yellow stripes on the cobblestones. It's not unusual to see the water getting close to the spaces painted at bottom center. If Old Man River is really rolling it can cover the paved path at left center or even go over the cement wall above that and over the street.

In an hour's shooting I saw one barge go by. My last office overlooked the river and a tow would pass in both directions every few minutes. As a commentator on FB noted yesterday, this is causing great difficultly for farmers who can't get their grain to port.               

THE MISSISSIPPI IS RUNNING DRY

This is the old levee, built in the 19th Century, that connects the Mississippi River to the central city. It's hard to get scale from this picture, but half to two-thirds of what you see here is normally under water. When the river is really full, it runs up to the street you can just see at the left center. The current level is the lowest in more that 40 years due to drought up and down the watershed. Barges, the commercial life of the river, have to run with light loads and shorter groups in the diminished central channel. There are areas that are restricted to one way traffic on alternating days.

I hope to drive down into the levee today for some closer shots. And I hope today doesn't approach a low water mark for our democracy.             

Thursday Arch Series

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Taken from the center of the walkway on Eads Bridge looking south. If the river were at a normal level most of the tan levee on the right would be covered. In a commonplace flood it would all be underwater. It's hard to tell in a wide angle shot but the distance from one waterline to another is a lot shorter than usual.

This has been going on for months. No relief in sight. The only solution I can think of is to go to Maine.

Lewis and Clark Dry Off

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Just how low is the Mississippi? Let's get a measuring gauge. This is the iconic statue of Lewis and Clark landing at St. Louis after their voyage of discovery to Oregon and back in 1804 - 1806. The first two pictures were taken on Sunday. Then going, going, gone. Those shots are from the floods of 2010 and 2008. That's a lot of muddy water.

Apologies in advance: this may be a light week on comments. Heavy week at work and have to organize my gear and pack for my week at the Maine Media Workshops, heaven on earth for photographers. I'll document it as I go along.

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Low Water

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The center of the U.S. is drier than Jame Bond's martini. Later this summer the water level in the Mississippi might be the lowest since records have been kept. It's not a problem downtown, where these photos were taken, but there are now sand bars in the river north and south of here that interfere with barge navigation.

It's not unusual to have room for three or four cars across to park on the stone levee. Now the water is past the level where the levee starts to disintegrate because it's so seldom exposed. When the river rises, everything you can see in the top picture is covered, and then some. 

Note the shadow of the Arch in the top photo. Oh, and pray for rain.

The Weather In St. Louis

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That's what it feels like around here, day after day after day. We were offered tickets to the Cardinals game this afternoon against the arch-rival (no pun intended) Chicago Cubs, but who wants to sit in a stupor watching players in a stupor when the temperature is 101F/38C? There have been a few very small, isolated thunderstorms but we haven't had any significant rain in three months. By contrast, the high temperature today will be 77F/25C in the town in Maine I'm heading for. Can't wait.

This mask was for sale at the Pagan Picnic. I don't know why you'd wear it unless you got a part in The Rite of Spring or were playing The Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request really loud. Actually, if you played either one really loud you would tick off one set of neighbors or the other.