The Mississippi River is expected to crest at 51.5 feet, drop, and then rise again a few days later to 51 feet, according to National Weather Service forecasts.

According to the forecast, the river will crest at 51.5 Sunday and drop about 5 feet to 46 feet, remain at that level for about two weeks before rising again to 51 or 51.5 feet.

“We’ve got more rain in the 16-day period that’s showing up (in the forecast),” said Marty Pope, hydrologist with the National Weather Service Office in Jackson.

“We’re looking over the next 16 days, there’s additional rain that’s going to come in the system that’s going to push it up a bit. It’s hard to get a handle on it, but that (second) crest is going to be somewhere around the end of the month.”

Pope said several weather systems will be moving over the region during the next 14-16 days.

“We’ve got a system going through next week; that one is still fairly progressive, and then we’ve got another one that moves across the (Mississippi) Valley on the 22nd,” he said.

The rainfall forecast, he said, “shows some very significant rains over the next 16 days that runs up from northern Mississippi right through western Tennessee and into the Ohio Valley. Looking at that, there’s like 6-7 inches across there with a little less in the Ohio Valley. That may help us out a little bit.”

The Ohio Valley, Pope said is projected to get 3-5 inches across the area and “that will be spread over time.”

“Most of the rainfall looks like over the 16-day period is straight up the (Mississippi) river and just to the east of the river and parts of the Ohio Valley,” he said.

Also, he said, the storage levels for the Barkley and Kentucky dams on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers has been increased, which he said is good news. That means, he said the dams will be able to handle any water that comes from the Tennessee or Cumberland.