As Tropical Storm Ida makes her way through the Gulf of Mexico, the stretch of Mississippi River running along Baton Rouge is lingering at fewer than 2 feet below its flood stage of 35 feet.But Baton Rouge is unlikely to see flooding from the Mississippi River throughout the week regardless of rain Ida may bring, said city-parish drainage engineer Jim Ferguson. Weather forecasts for Monday predicted an 80 percent chance of rain with significantly less rain through the remainder of the week, said Louisiana state climatologist Barry Keim.Cold fronts are anticipated to push Ida eastward, and Baton Rouge is not likely to receive significant rain, said Fred Zeigler, National Weather Service meteorologist. Zeigler said the river was at 33.7 feet Monday. It is anticipated to rise to 34.2 feet Tuesday, 34.4 feet Wednesday and 34.5 feet Thursday, and it is forecast to stabilize Friday.The average depth of the river in late October and early November is below 20 feet at a significantly lower depth than the river has this month, Zeigler said. Whenever the river rises above 35 feet, Ferguson said the Brightside Drive area begins to sweat water, and ditches start to overflow. “Whenever it hits 40 to 41 feet, the Coast Guard usually halts all barge traffic just to minimize that wave action,” Ferguson said. “Our lowest levee is about 47 feet … Back in 2008, it stayed at 43 feet for about a week.”Ferguson said East Baton Rouge Parish officials begin lining the levee with sand bags whenever the river reaches 43 to 44 feet.Baton Rouge has not seen flooding from the river since the levees were built in the 1920s, Ferguson said. Zeigler attributed high water levels to the flooding in the Mississippi River Valley.”We’ve had a significant amount of rain upstream in Arkansas and parts of Mississippi,” Zeigler said. “The runoff goes into the river, and the river becomes elevated.”Corps personnel in the Flood Fight team have been discharged to patrol the levees along the River, said Amanda Jones, public affairs specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But she said the Corps is unlikely to have to mechanically maintain water level.Previously, the Corps opened the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2008 to push water from the river into Lake Pontchartrain to maintain its flow.—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]