With the drought that is impacting a large portion of the United States showing no imminent signs of abating, a pair of NASA satellite images posted on the environment 360 website of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, comparing the water flow along the Mississippi in August 2011 and August 2012, graphically illustrates the impact of the drought. The photos show an area just south of Memphis, Tennessee, and clearly reveal the extensive sandbars that are now exposed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is continuing to dredge extensive sections of the Mississippi River to allow traffic to move. The Corps also continues to limit traffic flows to prevent bottlenecks being created that also limit traffic flows. Ironically, one of the only benefits of the substantially decreased water flow has been to allow the Corps to both access and repair levees that were damaged in the spring floods of 2011.