Ice on Mississippi River gathering as far south as Hickman harbor

Large amounts of ice on the Mississippi River is now causing problems as far south as the harbor at Hickman.

Chunks of ice are flowing downstream from the north where extremely frigid temperatures have compounded difficulty of working on the river.

Between Cairo and St. Louis, it has become a struggle for towboats to turn groups of tows in the flowing ice. Some fleets were reportedly using two boats working together for jobs that would usually only use one.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at St. Louis, lock and dam facilities within the St. Louis District continue working to ensure a reliable navigation channel. But when the lock is full of ice, a full set of barges can't fit into the lock.

At Hickman, there's enough ice floating between barges that make it difficult to tie the barges close together. Larger chunks of ice can run into towboats and damage equipment.

Officials said it's been at least a few winters since ice presented any kind of problem on the Mississippi as low as Cairo and Hickman.

The Dorena-Hickman Ferry has been closed since January 22, not due to ice, but for its five-year Coast Guard inspection of the tugboat, and taking the opportunity in dry dock to catch up on repairs.

As winter winds down through February, the next concern could be how fast temperatures warm into spring. A significant and rapid warming trend could melt all that ice at once and could lead to ice gorges, where the river becomes blocked by accumulating ice that can then break free and sweep downriver all at once. 

When you're talking about pieces of ice that can be larger than a car, be a couple feet thick, and weigh many tons, it can be a dangerous scenario. Ice gorges a century ago at Paducah are said to have sunk 14 steamboats when they broke loose.


Ice in lock at St. Louis (U.S.Army Corps of Engineers)