Clinton, Iowa's Ice Bound Mississippi River

On Sunday, December 23rd the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa moved ice flows south as air temperatures reached 23 F. The region's first major snow of the season closed the river to commercial traffic. A recent concern of barge owners and the U.S. Corp of Engineers is the river's channel depth. Drought  conditions over the past year have decreased the river's depth throughout the Upper Mississippi. Channel depth at the nearby Quad Cities measuring station indicated 9.86 feet today and dropping.