Falling Water River near Cookeville, TN 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 03423000 sits on the Falling Water River and reads everything draining 67 square miles of the Caney basin. Only 46 square miles of that contributes flow in a normal year; the rest is closed basin that does not drain to the river. Its datum sits 892 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 1932, 34 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 Center Hill Lake near Smithville, TN at 2,174 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 3% of the water measured there.

Normal flows here

The Falling Water River runs a median of 42 cfs at this gauge across 34 years of record. February is the fullest month at a median 158 cfs, and October the leanest at 10 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 5,230 cfs in 2020, and the lowest is 1.1 cfs in 1937.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1932 to 2026. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.

TVA dams near this gauge

TVA's Center Hill Dam is 17 miles from this gauge on the Caney Fork system. Planned generation, lake level and tailwater elevation for it load below when TVA has published them.

• Center Hill Dam 17 miles
• Great Falls Dam 20 miles