Pigeon River below Power Plant near Waterville, 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 03460795 sits on the Pigeon River and reads everything draining 538 square miles of the Pigeon basin. Its datum sits 1,353 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 1997, 29 years of it.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

Six gauged sites sit upstream of here. The closest is Waterville Lake on Pigeon River near Mnt Sterling, NC, reading 455 square miles. This gauge adds the 83 square miles that drain in between. Downstream the next reading comes from Pigeon River at Newport, TN at 666 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 81% of the water measured there.

Normal flows here

The Pigeon River runs a median of 770 cfs at this gauge across 29 years of record. March is the fullest month at a median 1,430 cfs, and September the leanest at 375 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 42,700 cfs in 2024, and the lowest is 74 cfs in 2001.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1997 to 2026. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.