FILE PHOTO: Boats make their way along the Mississippi river in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., August 28, 2020.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/Oct 20 (Reuters) - Low water levels on the Mississippi River are likely to persist this winter as drier-than-normal weather is expected across the southern United States and Gulf Coast, U.S. government forecasters said on Thursday.
Crucial shipments of fertilizer, farm chemicals and road salt that move up the Mississippi River ahead of the winter have also been disrupted.
"Across the lower Mississippi Valley, we are favoring continuation of below-normal precipitation," said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.
"That would certainly, if the prediction is realized, lead to continued low water levels and exacerbate drought conditions there."