River levels and significant storms?

[Humancell]

I'm truly enjoying reading the forums and learning from the experiences of people here. I'm looking forward to thoughts and tips about this subject.

My last boat was on the Puget Sound, and so some subjects never came to mind. As my next boat is intended as a Looper, and significant exploration of the interior waterways, I've realized that I'm about to learn something quite different from tides and currents. If I plan to spend at least 2-4 years exploring the interior, my odds of hitting some big storms is quite real.

Watching the results of Harvey and the amount of water being dumped, I started to wonder about the "best practices" for tracking the various river levels, impacts of upstream storms, and better understanding the "waves" of water that can move down the Mississippi and tributaries.

What are the water conditions that I'll need to be tracking, and where can they be found? Are most of these Army Corp? Where do you go on the river in times of flooding?

When do you avoid travel the most? Is the most debris at the peak and downside of flood levels?

What else am I not thinking of?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Spike]

https://www.ingrambarge.com/resc.php?RiverConditions#

Rivergages.com: Providing River Gage Data for Rivers, Streams and Tributaries

These are two that I like. I'm sure there are many others out there. The second link takes a bit of searching around to find the exact area you may be interested in.

I had been a river boater all my life so I had the opposite learning curve. Enjoy the travels and lessons.

 

[Humancell]

These are two that I like. I'm sure there are many others out there. The second link takes a bit of searching around to find the exact area you may be interested in.



I had been a river boater all my life so I had the opposite learning curve. Enjoy the travels and lessons.

Thanks for the links. The other one that I've used a lot out west is the USGS site, and it does have the "Daily Stage" on rivers across the country at numerous gauging stations: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

You can view charts and pick time periods ... so a good source of stage and flow on demand.

 

[ulysses]

The rise and fall of rivers is dependent upon the drainage area of that river and of course the controls (locks and dams) that are in place. While you may receive information on the river stages from the sources earlier provided you may also receive them from the VHF reports given as local notices.

What is more important than the particular stage of the river is the direction that it is moving either falling or on the rise and the time of movement. So it is not a bad idea to log the stage reports.