Misplaced Pages

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39-676: The Old River Control Structure is a complex containing the original low-sill and overbank structures, as well as the auxiliary structure that was constructed after the low-sill structure was damaged during the Mississippi River Flood of 1973 . The complex also contains a navigation lock and the Sidney A. Murray Jr. Hydroelectric Station. Before the 15th century, the Red River and Mississippi River were entirely separate and flowed more or less parallel to one another. Beginning in

78-427: A Mapbox Map base and provides many interactive and dynamically updated weather and environmental layers. On November 15, 2017, users were notified by email that their worldwide, user-provided weather cameras would cease to be available on December 15, 2017. However, on December 11, 2017 users received another email from Weather Underground announcing that they were reversing their position and would not be discontinuing

117-867: A heavy snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains which caused western tributaries such as the Missouri and Arkansas to form a final catastrophic high in June. The flood resulted in the largest volume of water to flow down the Mississippi since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 . Both the Bonnet Carre Spillway and the Morganza Spillway were employed. The Bonnet Carre was fully opened between April 7 and June 14 for

156-826: A name suggested by Jeff Masters. They decided on the name, because it "alludes to our deep fascination with all types of weather and climate extremes, including the many important facets of our changing climate", and "will provide all the insight and expert analysis needed to put the extreme events of our evolving 21st-century climate into context." On April 3, 2017 Weather Underground ended all Member blogs, WUMail, SMS alerts, NOAA Weather Radio rebroadcast and Aviation. Weather Underground also uses observations from members with automated personal weather stations (PWS). Weather Underground uses observations from over 250,000 personal weather stations worldwide. The Weather Underground's WunderMap overlays weather data from personal weather stations and official National Weather Service stations on

195-486: A new delta south of Morgan City in southern Louisiana, greatly reducing water flow to its present channel through Baton Rouge and New Orleans , with adverse economic effects on both port cities. The Mississippi flood of 1973 almost caused the control structure to fail. Maintenance of the integrity of the Old River Control Structure, the nearby Morganza Spillway , and other levees in the area

234-477: A record 75 days. The 1973 flood was the first time the Morganza Spillway was opened: from April 19 through June 13. At Memphis, Tennessee , the Mississippi was over flood stage for 63 days, more than that of the historic 1927 flood , and the river was above flood stage for an even longer 107 days at upstream Cairo, Illinois . Out of the seven largest floods on the Mississippi between 1927 and 1997,

273-457: A redirect to a full screen weather viewer tied into OpenStreetMap. There was an app developed for Roku devices, which has been deleted. In February 2015, Weather Underground released an iOS app called Storm. This app is universal, and can be used on both iPhone and iPad. Other apps by Weather Underground include WunderStation for iPad and WunderMap for iOS and Android . In 2017, Weather Underground removed support for "Storm," in favor of

312-562: A redirect to weather.com), a full screen weather Web tool with integrated mapping and mobile device use in mind. On July 2, 2012, The Weather Channel announced that it would acquire Weather Underground, which would become operated as part of The Weather Channel Companies, LLC, which was later renamed " The Weather Company ". The Weather Underground web site continues to operate as a separate entity from The Weather Channel primary site, weather.com , with its existing staff retained. Third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb rate

351-470: A vessel would need several hours to travel the 20 miles (32 km) of Turnbull's Bend, after which it would have progressed only about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the entrance to the bend. To reduce travel time, Captain Henry M. Shreve , a river engineer and namesake of Shreveport , Louisiana, dug a canal in 1831 through the neck of Turnbull's Bend; this canal became known as Shreve's Cut. At the next high water,

390-852: Is based in San Francisco , California and was founded in 1995 as an offshoot of the University of Michigan internet weather database. The name is a reference to the 1960s radical left-wing militant organization the Weather Underground , which also originated at the University of Michigan. The name, formerly UM-Weather, was changed to Weather Underground in 1991 due to feedback from the National Science Foundation in response to Perry Samson's proposal for funding. Weather Underground has since adopted

429-498: Is essential to prevent such a diversion. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground noted that failure of that complex "would be a serious blow to the U.S. economy." The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and Overbank Control Structure became operational in 1964 and expanded in 1986 with the addition of the Old River Control Auxiliary Structure (ORCAS). The primary one that regulates routine flow in

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468-713: The Associated Press ; Weather Underground also provides weather reports for some newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Google search engine. Alan Steremberg also worked on the early development of the Google search engine with Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In October 2008, Jeff Masters reported that the site was No. 2 for Internet weather information in 2008. In February 2010, Weather Underground launched FullScreenWeather.com (now

507-708: The Internet . It provides weather reports for most major cities around the world on its Web site, as well as local weather reports for newspapers and third-party sites. Its information comes from the National Weather Service (NWS), and over 250,000 personal weather stations (PWS). The site is available in many languages, and customers can access an ad-free version of the site with additional features for an annual fee. In February 2024, Weather Underground and its parent company, The Weather Company , became controlled by Francisco Partners . The company

546-594: The 15th century, the Mississippi River created a small, westward, oxbow loop , later called Turnbull's Bend, near present-day Angola, Louisiana . This loop eventually intersected the Red River, making the downstream part of the Red River a distributary of the Mississippi; this distributary came to be called the Atchafalaya River . In the heyday of steamboats along the Mississippi River, such

585-563: The 1973 event ranked third in both volume discharged and duration but only sixth in flood height. Over $ 250 million of damages were incurred mainly in the Mississippi Valley states of Missouri , Arkansas , Tennessee , Mississippi and Louisiana . The largest single inundation, south of St. Louis, Missouri , was caused by a series of catastrophic levee failures on the west bank of the river and ultimately covered almost 9,400 square miles (24,000 km ). The Morganza Spillway

624-650: The Atchafalaya River to the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing Baton Rouge and New Orleans (see diagram). The Morganza Floodway , between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya Basin nearby downstream, is normally closed. It can be opened in an emergency to relieve water levels and water-pressure stress on various levees and other flood-control structures, including the Old River Control Structure. The floodway can reduce stress by diverting additional water from

663-421: The Atchafalaya River, such that the volume of the two rivers is split 70%/30%, respectively, as measured at the latitude of Red River Landing. This flow split was not based on science, but rather was based on the approximate flow allocation between the two rivers that existed at the time of construction. Water diverted at Old River flows into the Atchafalaya Basin, first entering the Red River, then continuing down

702-481: The Gulf of Mexico through the natural geologic process of avulsion . Historically, this natural process of course change has occurred about every 1,000 years, and is overdue. Some researchers believe the likelihood of this event increases each year, despite manmade artificial control efforts. If the Mississippi diverts its main channel to the Atchafalaya Basin and the Atchafalaya River , it would develop

741-535: The Lower Old River would flow eastward to the Mississippi when the Red River was high and the Mississippi was low, and westward to the Atchafalaya when the Mississippi was high and the Red River was low. Over time, the number of days when the river flowed east to the Mississippi decreased and the number of days when the river flowed west increased, until eventually the Lower Old River flowed west over half

780-462: The Mississippi into the Atchafalaya. The Morganza Floodway was never used before the construction of Old River Control Structure, and as of 2016 has been opened only twice for flood control since completion of the Old River Control Structure. 31°04′36″N 91°35′52″W  /  31.0768°N 91.5979°W  / 31.0768; -91.5979 Mississippi flood of 1973 The Mississippi flood of 1973 occurred between March and May 1973 on

819-550: The Mississippi roared through this channel. The upper portion of Turnbull's Bend was referred to as Upper Old River, while the larger, lower portion became known as the Lower Old River . At first, the Lower Old River would flow eastward, to the Mississippi, until 1839, when locals began removing the Great Raft , a natural log jam that was obstructing the Atchafalaya River. The project was finished in 1840. After that,

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858-670: The South . All five structures in the complex carry Louisiana Highway 15 , starting at the power plant, then the Overbank Structure, then the Low Sill ORCS, followed by ORCAS, the island created between the rivers, and finally the Old River Lock. Water from the Mississippi is normally diverted into the Atchafalaya Basin only at Old River, where floodgates are routinely used to redirect the Mississippi's flow into

897-486: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concluded that the Mississippi River could change its course to the Atchafalaya River by 1990 if it were not controlled, since this alternative path to the Gulf of Mexico through the Atchafalaya River is much shorter and steeper. The Corps completed construction on the Old River Control Structure in 1963 to prevent the main channel flow of the Mississippi River from altering its current course to

936-455: The delta region including the major port of New Orleans, Louisiana . In spite of record high flows, flood stages were not as high as past events. Red River Landing, Louisiana reached 58.22 feet on May 13 and was 9th highest crest of record. The flood stage at Baton Rouge was 42.10 feet on May 10. Farther down the River at Donaldsonville the flood stage reached 32.30 feet on April 9, which

975-473: The latitude of the Red River Landing , located five miles (8.0 km) downstream of Old River. In this case, latitude flow is a combination of the flows of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers as they cross an imaginary line at that latitude. Between 1850 and 1950, the percentage of latitude flow entering the Atchafalaya River had increased from less than 10 percent to about 30 percent. By 1953,

1014-530: The lower Mississippi River . The flooding was the third most severe along the U.S. 's Mississippi River during the 20th century. A series of unusually cold winters in the river basin concluded in the winter of 1972-1973, when high precipitation saturated much of the watershed, especially in the Ohio Valley and lower Mississippi Valley . This was followed by more rain in early 1973, with river flow cresting on March 31 at Red River Landing, Louisiana , and

1053-600: The main features in Weather Underground, allowing users of the site to create blogs about weather, everyday life and anything else. Jeff Masters started the first blog on April 14, 2005, and he posts blog entries nearly every day. From 2007 through early 2017 Richard B. Rood wrote blogs on climate change and societal response, with new entries on a weekly basis. On October 14, 2016, the Wunderblog announced that it would be changing their name to Category 6,

1092-496: The nickname Wunderground in addition to Weather Underground. Jeff Masters, a doctoral candidate in meteorology at the University of Michigan working under the direction of Professor Perry Samson, wrote a menu-based Telnet interface in 1991 that displayed real-time weather information around the world. In 1993, they recruited Alan Steremberg and initiated a project to bring Internet weather into K–12 classrooms. Weather Underground president Alan Steremberg wrote "Blue Skies" for

1131-482: The project design flood flow is 1.25 million ft /s with the balance flowing through the Bonnet Carre Spillway. Discharge through the Bonnet Carre Spillway increased the level of Lake Pontchartrain to 3 feet above normal, peaking at 14.7 feet at mid-lake. Weather Underground (weather service) Weather Underground is a commercial weather service providing real-time weather information over

1170-524: The project, a graphical Mac Gopher client, which won several awards. When the Mosaic Web browser appeared, this provided a natural transition from "Blue Skies" to the Web. In 1995 Weather Underground Inc. became a commercial entity separate from the university. It has grown to provide weather for print sources, in addition to its online presence. In 2005, Weather Underground became the weather provider for

1209-470: The service based on significant user feedback. The service previously distributed Internet radio feeds of NOAA Weather Radio stations from across the country, as provided by users, and had a Weather Underground Braille Page. The Associated Press uses Weather Underground to provide national weather summaries. Weather Underground has several Google Chrome extensions and applications for iPhone , iPad and Android including FullScreenWeather.com,

Old River Control Structure - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-569: The site as the 117th and 98th most-visited site in the United States, respectively, as of July 2015. SimilarWeb rates the site as the second most visited weather website globally, attracting more than 47 million visitors per month. The Weather Company also uses the site's San Francisco headquarters as a regional office. The site popularity also helped launch a television show hosted by meteorologist Mike Bettes , which aired on The Weather Channel from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. The show

1287-580: The site. These four structures are located approximately where the Upper Old River used to be before Shreve's Cut. A navigation channel and lock are also part of the facility design, but they are situated well south of the other structures on the Lower Old River at the Old River Lock. This makes the Lower Old River navigable, allowing ship and barge traffic between the Mississippi River and the Atchafalaya River/ Red River of

1326-445: The time. By 1880, it rarely flowed eastward and was rapidly capturing more and more of the flow of the Mississippi. With this increased water flow, the channel of the Atchafalaya River was worn deeper and wider throughout the 1800s and early 1900s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers measured the amount of water flowing through the Mississippi River and compared it to the amount entering the Atchafalaya Basin by monitoring "latitude flow" at

1365-687: The waterway is the Low Sill Control Structure. The Overbank Structure is only used when the Mississippi exceeds its banks. The ORCAS is used during floods to assist the ORCS and prevent it from being damaged due to high flow rates. ORCAS was added to reduce pressure on the original floodgates after extensive damage caused by the flood of 1973. The northernmost and newest structure is the Sidney A. Murray Jr. Hydroelectric Station , completed in 1990. It provides an additional measure of control at

1404-549: Was finalized on January 29, 2016. On October 3, 2019, Jeff Masters announced that he would be leaving Weather Underground. On August 22, 2023, IBM agreed to sell The Weather Company to private equity firm Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum. After the acquisition of the company was completed in February 2024, Weather Underground also became controlled by the American private equity firm. Web logs ( blogs ) were one of

1443-612: Was opened, flooding portions of the Atchafalaya River basin in Louisiana and causing the deaths of thousands of head of livestock and white-tailed deer . The 1973 flood was notable for nearly causing the failure of the Old River Control Structure above the Mississippi River Delta , which would have sent the Mississippi's main channel flowing into the Atchafalaya River and bypassing most of

1482-486: Was renamed Weather Unfiltered on May 13, 2024. On October 28, 2015, Jeff Masters noted that IBM had officially announced an agreement to acquire The Weather Company's mobile and cloud-based Web properties, including Weather Underground, WSI, weather.com, and also the Weather Company brand. The Weather Channel television service remained a separate entity, later sold to Entertainment Studios in 2018. The deal

1521-434: Was the 10th highest crest of record. At Reserve , the crest was 24.50 ft on April 8, 7 highest on record. On April 7, New Orleans crested at 18.47 ft. The flow past Baton Rouge peaked at 1.38 million cubic feet per second (ft /s) on May 13. The project design flood capacity at Baton Rouge is 1.38 million ft /s (39,077.25 m /s). The flow past New Orleans peaked at 1.257 million ft /s (35,594.28 m /s) on April 15;

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