Little River above Townsend, 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 03497300 sits on the Little River and reads everything draining 106 square miles of the Watts Bar Lake basin. Its datum sits 1,107 feet above sea level NGVD29. Daily flow has been on record here since 1964, 63 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 Little River near Maryville, TN at 269 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 39% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to Little River near Alcoa, TN.

Normal flows here

The Little River runs a median of 190 cfs at this gauge across 63 years of record. March is the fullest month at a median 351 cfs, and October the leanest at 79 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 9,000 cfs in 1994, and the lowest is 15 cfs in 2008.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1964 to 2026. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.

TVA dams near this gauge

TVA's Fontana Dam is 16 miles from this gauge on the Little Tenn system. Planned generation, lake level and tailwater elevation for it load below when TVA has published them.

• Fontana Dam 16 miles
• Douglas Dam 23 miles