In the news, 1/5/18

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that traffic has been halted at Lock and Dam 52 at Paducah because of low water levels. That's not surprising, as this area at least has not had much precipitation since early December, if then

Wednesday we were down at the river looking for ice. There were some small pieces out in the river, but they weren't moving, which told me there was little or no current. No rain, no current. Yesterday and today, the channel was empty of ice, possibly because of the constant wind that was churning up some waves.

They're having some ice in the upper part of the river, as this article in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explains.

On a local note, people in one local Facebook group that I follow are talking about the freeze of 1977. I remember the weather that brought that about. It was the year that Huntington had problems getting road salt because a towboat was having trouble getting up the river because of all the ice. It was also the year the M/V Claire Beatty sank at the Markland Locks and Dam when it was trapped by ice.