Mississippi Delta goes from flood to drought

WARREN COUNTY, Miss. (WLBT) - It’s been a world of extreme weather for parts of the Mississippi Delta this year.

From too wet, to too dry, the Mississippi Delta can’t catch a break when it comes to weather.

Warren County EMA Director John Elfer says the county has only had about 10 percent of the rain it usually has during September.

“The forecast we’ve seen indicates no rain in the near future with hot temperatures that’s leading to heat stress on folks. We’ve had a number of heat related medical calls then we have the fire danger so probably at some point in the next week and a half we’ll probably have some discussion about burn bans here in Warren county,” said Elfer.

At the peak of the backwater flood, 550,000 acres were underwater.

Those fields that sat underwater for months are now bone dry.

Normally a harvest would be in full swing but the flood took many farmers crops.

The concern now is the other vegetation that was killed in the flood.

John Elfer said, “We got numerous cypress trees magnolia trees that did not survive the flood especially the cypress, they’re becoming a fire hazard.”

The rains been there, just not in the right place and not spread out.

WLBT Chief Meterologist David Roberts said, “As of today were still for the year above normal on rainfall if we don’t get any rain lets say in Jackson between now and the end of this month just a few days from now were going to wind up 90 percent below normal.”

The best case scenario for the Delta now is light rainfalls spread out days apart.

Too much rain, could lead to flash flooding, in a region that’s had their share of water on the ground this year, but now needing more.

Copyright 2019 WLBT. All rights reserved.