Natchez — The water level in the Mississippi River has been running a little high this year, but the level is falling, and it is well below the flood stage level of 48 feet in Natchez.

“They have had a consistent rainfall in the upper Mississippi Valley and Missouri Valley,” NWS Senior Hydrologist Marty Pope said. “These rains have kept the level high.”

According to the National Weather Service, this morning the river is expected to stand around 23.2 feet and is expected to fall to approximately 23 feet by this evening.

Pope said the average water level for the river for this time of the year is around 12 to 13 feet.

“We are running around 150 percent to 200 percent above normal,” he said. “We had a high river going into the summer months.”

While the river is still high, Pope said it has been going down since mid-July.

“Beginning July 11, the water level was around 40 feet,” Pope said. “We are seeing a progression of the river falling back that has been consistent over the past few months.”

Pope said weather officials hope to see the water level back to normal in late fall or early winter.

“We want this river to be much lower by December,” he said. “It all depends though, we may get a lot of rain or we may not.”

The weather effect known as La Niña is what is causing the large amounts of rain in the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys Pope said.

“El Niño is the warming of the water in the southern Pacific Ocean,” he said. “La Niña is when the water is cooler than normal, and it keeps the rain going farther north than it does with El Niño.”

The higher amounts of rain in these valleys are coming down the Mississippi River and keeping the water level higher than average said Pope.

“While we expect the river to be back to normal in late November or early December, if we keep on getting heavy rains in the upper valley, it may not drop.”