North Fork Swannanoa River near Walkertown, NC 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 0344894205 sits on the North Fork Swannanoa River and reads everything draining 14 square miles of the Upper French Broad basin. Its datum sits 2,640 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 1989, 36 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 Swannanoa River at Biltmore, NC at 130 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 11% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to French Broad River at Haywood Rd at Asheville, NC, French Broad River at Asheville, NC and French Broad River at Marshall, NC.

Normal flows here

The North Fork Swannanoa River runs a median of 26 cfs at this gauge across 36 years of record. March is the fullest month at a median 47 cfs, and August the leanest at 12 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 8,930 cfs in 2024, and the lowest is 1.4 cfs in 2008.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1989 to 2025. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.