Panorama of Mississippi River flood crest at Memphis - May, 2011

Disaster sells, obviously

Four of the most read posts on Joe Spake’s Weblog in 2011 were directly related to this year’s record flooding on the Mississippi River from the Memphis perspective.  Interestingly the 6th most read post, about the Memphis ice storm of 1994, was written in January of 2010, and has been read consistently ever since (Maybe I accidentally worked some SEO magic.)  Here are the Joe Spake’s Weblog Top 10 for 2011:

1.  Mississippi River flooding- You ain’t seen nothing yet  (April 4, 2011)  – The water was high in April, but not nearly as high as it would be in May.

2.  Flood Stage (April 26, 2011)   – Actually the Mississippi River rose over 14 feet higher than the official “flood stage”.

3.  NOAA raises Memphis flood crest prediction to 48 feet (May 2, 2011)

4.  Why I am not following you back on Twitter  (June 19, 2011)   – It seems that everyone wants to get involved in Twitter, but few want to put forth the effort to engage.  Think back to how much Twitter has been in the news, or actually shaped news in 2011.  The growth of the 140 character messaging system will continue.

5.  Quick guide to Mississippi River Conditions  (January 31, 2011)   – Written before the magnitude of the flood was anticipated.

6.  The Memphis ice storm of 1994  (January 30, 2010)   – That ice storm is probably the most memorable weather event of my life – a true perfect storm – The ice that caused the damage was mostly gone by noon.

7.  Joe’s Google+ tips – #1 – controlling the content of your stream (July 10, 2011)  – Google+ joined the social media field this year.  Will it be a viable  competitor for Facebook?  Will G+ find it’s niche?  The jury’s still out.

8. Memphis begins to feel the flood (April 28, 2011)  – River rising!

9.  For the love of figs – a new hobby (August 8, 2011)  – Having access to figs and pears gave me the incentive to take up canning.

10.  Memphis ghost schools – a photo essay (February 27,2011)  – Memphis City Schools has a lot of neglected and abandoned properties in their inventory.

Side note:  Images of the flood garnered over 100,000 views on my Flickr photo sharing site.

If you have been a regular reader of this blog,  please comment on the Top 10 or any of your favorite posts from 2011 that didn’t make the cut.  More to come in 2012!