National Weather Service revises Mississippi River flooding forecast

The Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau is falling slower than expected and will remain above flood stage for about another week and a half.

That according to a revised forecast from the National Weather Service in Paducah, Kentucky, which last week said the river would drop below flood stage of 32 feet on the Cape Girardeau river gage by the end of this week.

However, rainfall along the Missouri River and other tributaries that feed into the Mississippi north of Cape Girardeau kept the river above 37 feet on the Cape Girardeau gage most of last week before falling to 36.9 feet Sunday night.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the gage reading at Cape Girardeau was about 36.5 feet, or 4.5 feet over flood stage and approximately 12.3 feet below the record high water mark on the Cape Girardeau gage of 48.86 feet measured Jan. 2, 2016.

The NWS forecast the river will remain above 36 feet until Thursday afternoon before gradually falling below 32 feet by April 10.