Kentucky River at Lock 13 near Willow Shoals, KY Water Level Today

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 03282060 sits on the Kentucky River and reads everything draining 2,784 square miles of the Upper Kentucky basin. Its datum sits 608 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 2004, 21 years of it.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

One gauged site sits upstream of here. The closest is Kentucky River at Lock 14 at Heidelberg, KY, reading 2,657 square miles. This gauge adds the 127 square miles that drain in between. Downstream the next reading comes from Kentucky River at Lock 12 near Irvine, KY at 2,916 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 95% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to Kentucky River at Lock 11 near College Hill, KY.

Normal flows here

The Kentucky River runs a median of 1,390 cfs at this gauge across 21 years of record. March is the fullest month at a median 6,180 cfs, and October the leanest at 510 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 85,300 cfs in 2021, and the lowest is 72 cfs in 2007.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 2004 to 2025. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.