Dredging of the fractured bedrock-lined Mississippi River Channel at Thebes, Illinois.

The article focuses on drought conditions in the Mississippi River Channel at Thebes, Illinois as a result of slow soaking rain systems and evening thunder-storms. Topics discussed include a new challenge for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to control the Mississippi River, lack of rain throughout 2012 that severe summertime seasonal drought over the central Great Plains and USACE's successful effort to dredge other parts of the Mississippi River to keep the shipping channel open.