The Mississippi River reached nearly 48 feet in Memphis, Tenn., on May 10, according to the U.S. National Weather Service. It was the highest water level for Memphis since 1937.

Several of NASA's fleet of Earth-observing satellites have been gathering data on the current Mississippi flooding as well as floods worldwide. The progress of the floodwaters can be tracked in a series of satellite images posted on the NASA Earth Observatory website.

The Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper captured an image on May 10 showing in natural color the area around Memphis as it would look to the human eye. This month muddy water has pushed over the Mississippi's banks both east and west of the normal river channel.

Flood waters span the distance between Memphis and West Memphis. Another Landsat 5 image from April 21, 2010 (bottom), shows non-flooded conditions.