At the start of April a deadly torrent of rains caused flooding across the Midwest, as days of severe storms ravaged much of the central part of the United States. A month later, the Mississippi River in New Orleans was finally cresting this week, as much of the water from those storms is ending its long journey south.

The river has been gradually rising for weeks and reached 16.7 feet on Thursday. This is just below the flood stage of 17 feet, and far from a record, but it’s the highest water level in New Orleans since 2020, and comes amid a four-year drought in the Mississippi River Basin.

“It looks noticeably different than it was just a year ago,” said Robert Florence, a co-owner of NOLA Historic Tours, who led a tour by the river a week ago. “When the water is higher, it accentuates the sinkholes, cross currents, whirlpools and eddies. It feels more alive and powerful.”

The Mississippi watershed is the third largest in the world.

The Mississippi River is complex and huge. Its main stem flows 2,350 miles from the headwaters at Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, touching 10 states and spreading out into many more with its tributaries.

The water that comes down the river and arrives in New Orleans is a result of rain and snowmelt that has occurred in states as far away as Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Montana, Colorado and Tennessee.