Catawba River at Sr1223 below Lake James near Bridgewater, NC Flow & Water Level

NWS river forecast

Forecast from the NOAA National Water Prediction Service. Issued a few times a day and only while a forecast is active. Not for navigation.

Last 30 days

About this gauge

USGS gauge 02138520 sits on the Catawba River and reads everything draining 386 square miles of the Upper Catawba basin. Its datum sits 1,057 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 2009, 17 years of it.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

No gauged site sits above this one on the mainstem, so this is the first published reading on the river. Downstream the next reading comes from Catawba River near Granite Falls, NC at 1,070 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 36% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to Catawba River at Rhodhiss, NC and Catawba River at NC Highway 16 near Millersville, NC.

Normal flows here

The Catawba River runs a median of 518 cfs at this gauge across 17 years of record. February is the fullest month at a median 899 cfs, and August the leanest at 420 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 3,860 cfs in 2013, and the lowest is 0.7 cfs in 2011.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 2009 to 2026. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.