Middle Fork Kentucky River at Hwy28 near Buckhorn, 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 03280902 sits on the Middle Fork Kentucky River and reads everything draining 421 square miles of the Middle Fork Kentucky basin. Its datum sits 712 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 2022, 4 years of it.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

Buckhorn Lake at Buckhorn, KY sits immediately upstream, so dam releases rather than rainfall set the flow here. Two gauged sites sit upstream of here. The closest is Buckhorn Lake at Buckhorn, KY, reading 408 square miles. This gauge adds the 13 square miles that drain in between. Downstream the next reading comes from Middle Fork Kentucky River at Tallega, KY at 537 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 78% of the water measured there.

Normal flows here

The Middle Fork Kentucky River runs a median of 201 cfs at this gauge across 4 years of record. February is the fullest month at a median 1,040 cfs, and October the leanest at 48 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 4,370 cfs in 2022, and the lowest is 12 cfs in 2022.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 2022 to 2025. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.