Determining Correlations between the Effects of El Niño and Flooding Along the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana

Flooding along the Red River is rare across portions of the Red River Basin of Northwest Louisiana.  However, several events of heavy rainfall fell across the middle and lower portions of the Red River Basin of Southern Oklahoma, Northeast Texas, Southwest Arkansas, and Northwest Louisiana between May 2015 and May 2016, resulting in multiple flood crests along numerous points between Lake Texoma along the Texas-Oklahoma border to Alexandria, Louisiana.  This accounted for five separate flood crests at the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana, including the highest crest since April 1945 and the first flood since May 1990.  These series of crests occurred during one of the strongest El Niño events on record. Several other flood and near flood crests are also noted in Shreveport’s history during past El Niño events since 1950.  This study will compare synoptic patterns and rainfall distributions during past El Niño events when flooding occurred along the Red River in Shreveport.  The synoptic patterns associated with El Niño will also be compared with the 1950-2015 means for that time period.  In addition, past flood event analysis and impacts will be addressed to determine any correlations between the effects of El Niño, as well as other potential atmospheric, geologic, and manmade factors that may have contributed to the increased instances of flooding along the Red River in Shreveport.