Martins Fork near Smith, 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 03400800 sits on the Martins Fork and reads everything draining 56 square miles of the Upper Cumberland basin. Its datum sits 1,258 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow is on record here from 1980 to 2024, 35 years in all.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

Martins Fork Lake at Martins Fork Dam near Smith, KY sits immediately upstream, so dam releases rather than rainfall set the flow here. One gauged site sits upstream of here. The closest is Martins Fork Lake at Martins Fork Dam near Smith, KY, reading 56 square miles. Downstream the next reading comes from Martin's Fork near Harlan, KY at 119 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 47% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to Cumberland River near Harlan, KY.

Normal flows here

The Martins Fork runs a median of 50 cfs at this gauge across 35 years of record. February is the fullest month at a median 169 cfs, and September the leanest at 12 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 1,880 cfs in 2002, and the lowest is 3.4 cfs in 2024.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1980 to 2024. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median. USGS stopped publishing a daily flow record at this gauge, so these are historical norms, not a baseline for current readings.