Record flood stage still in forecast for Cape

The latest forecast for the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau still shows the river could reach the all-time record stage of 48.5 ft. on Jan. 2.

Downstream, the forecast for Thebes shows a crest of 47.5 ft. on that gage, which would shatter the old record of 45.9 ft.

The situation is ridiculous upstream as well, where the forecast for the Chester gage continues to show a crest of 49.8 ft., just above the record of 49.7 ft. This stage could potentially overtop multiple levees on both the Missouri and Illinois side of the river.

Compounding the problem, the Ohio River is also facing major flooding -- but thankfully not quite record setting. The forecast for Cairo projects a crest of 59 ft. This is two feet higher than yesterday's forecast, but appears to be just below the level at which the Birds Point Levee would need to be blasted.

Here's a good link for following the river observations and forecasts: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc/. That page shows a map of the Midwest; hover over a marker to see a river stage graph.

We've seen incredible quantities of rain in recent days across a wide swath of the Midwest, and much of that runoff will be funneled through the Mississippi or Ohio rivers in the near future. This graphic shows the estimated precipitation totals for the last 7 days -- but it does not include some of the rain that fell today:

The good news is that we are on the cusp of a major pattern change that will bring a very dry air mass for the foreseeable future. Indeed, we aren't expected to see any precipitation for the next week: