Rising water on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers

Melting snow continues to increase river levels in southern end of March 2011. Advanced hydrologic prediction service from the US National Weather Service issued flood warnings for several locations along the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, including Mankato and St. Paul.

The moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this images on the 27 March 2011 (above) and 28 February 2011 (below). Both images use a combination of infrared and visible light, increasing the contrast between water and land. Snow is bright Turquoise. Water is Navy. Vegetation is green. Clouds are almost white and shadows.

Snow over almost the whole region remains at the end of February. A month later, the snow has melted South of St. Paul and Mankato. The dark colours to Mankato suggest the presence of standing water. Both rivers appear much more important at the end of March, in particular the Mississippi.

US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. National weather service. Advanced hydrologic prediction service. Accessed March 28 images 2011.NASA by courtesy of MODIS rapid response team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.

Instrument: Terra - MODIS

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