River Flows After Today's Rain?

[BowhunterNJ]

Anyone look at the USGS river flows from today's rain?
 
If I'm reading it correctly, the Manasquan is running 2.5 times higher than it ever has in history, and over 25 times higher than normal.
 

Daily discharge, cubic feet per second -- statistics for Jun 8 based on 80 years of record more

Min (1999) 25th percentile Median Mean 75th percentile Max (2003) Most Recent Instantaneous Value

Jun 8 25 35 43 55 58 440 1010

 

 
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nj/nwis/uv?site_no=01408000
 
Anyone been down to the Squan to take a look?   

[Bucksnbows]

That only means that it is running higher than it does 75% of the time, and not necessarily a historic flow.  I see that the river crested above flood stage which, for that river, is 7' as measured at the gauge.  My guess is that it has flowed much higher during certain floods, but I do not know that river system well.  Certainly this weekend was not the flood of record for that watershed.  Hurricane Irene was a flood of record for many NJ watersheds in the fall of 2011. 

 

Without going into great detail on how, you can mine all the information on each gauge online from the first day of recording on any station.  USGS has great tools.  I get automated email alerts to my smart phone when flows hit 3,000 cfs on the Musky's Bloomsbury gauge because I set it up that way and 3,000 cfs is when much of that river enters its flooplain.  I also have a low-flow alert set for Lake Hopatcong when releases fall below 12 cfs so that we can keep the state honest (DEP Parks and Forestry operate the Lake H dam) and 12 cfs is the agreed-to minimum flow except in certain drought situations.  I check certain gauges daily or more frequently on the rivers I fish or on the Musky where I work during heavy rainy or dry periods.  We're expecting heavy rains again tomorrow and our rivers remain high.  Expect flooding tomorrow and Tuesday on many NJ rivers and streams.    

[PV216]

I drive by all different parts of the manasquan almost daily. It didnt look much different last week but im no expert. Heres a pic of the highest ive ever seen it. This was taken shortly after irene came through a couple years ago. Its the southard ave section. The water is normally about 10ft under that overpass.

Edited June 10, 2013 by PV216

[BowhunterNJ]

Ah OK, I was looking at the "Most Recent Instantaneous Value" versus the Max(YYYY) and thinking both were the CFS readings?  What is the Max(YYYY) if everything else there is CFS measures?  I thought the max was 311 in 1940, then saw it at nearly 1400 the other day...which seems astronomical.

[Bucksnbows]

Here's a link to peak streamflows for the Muddysquan near Squankum.  Not sure if this is the same gauge you're looking at (?).

 

http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/peak/?site_no=01408000

 

Looks like the two biggest events happened in about 1938 and 2011 to that section of that stream.  When you look at a given USGS gauge, you're only seeing data from today and that data is only compared to data collected at that station for that same day.  You need to drill down to links like "Peak Streamflows" to get other data like this.  But yes, mean, median and max flows are all shown in cubic feet per second (cfs) at each gauge. 

[Bucksnbows]

Here's a link to peak streamflows for the Muddysquan near Squankum.  Not sure if this is the same gauge you're looking at (?).

 

http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/peak/?site_no=01408000

 

Looks like the two biggest events happened in about 1938 and 2011 to that section of that stream.  When you look at a given USGS gauge, you're only seeing data from today and that data is only compared to data collected at that station for that same day.  You need to drill down to links like "Peak Streamflows" to get other data like this.  But yes, mean, median and max flows are all shown in cubic feet per second (cfs) at each gauge. 

I should add that the two peak events were about 3,000 cfs with the 1938 or '39 event being the flood of record for this particular gauge on this stream if that helps.   

[BowhunterNJ]

Right, I see that one record in the table view (and on the graph view) where it hit 9,100 cfs?

 

2011 Aug. 28, 2011 13.06 9,100

[Bucksnbows]

 

Right, I see that one record in the table view (and on the graph view) where it hit 9,100 cfs?

 

2011 Aug. 28, 2011 13.06 9,100

 

Wow, that dot was so high up the chart that I didn't even see it, lol.  Yes, that is flood of record! 

[BowhunterNJ]

Haha yeah that one was WAYYYYY up there!