Valley Creek near Bessemer, AL 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 02461500 sits on Valley Creek and reads everything draining 52 square miles of the Upper Black Warrior basin. Its datum sits 439 feet above sea level NAVD88. Daily flow has been on record here since 1975, 41 years of it.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

Three gauged sites sit upstream of here. The closest is Valley Creek below Brighton, Ala, reading 30 square miles. This gauge adds the 22 square miles that drain in between. Downstream the next reading comes from Valley Creek near Oak Grove AL at 148 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 35% of the water measured there.

Normal flows here

Valley Creek runs a median of 68 cfs at this gauge across 41 years of record. March is the fullest month at a median 109 cfs, and October the leanest at 46 cfs. The highest daily mean on record is 6,180 cfs in 1979, and the lowest is 15 cfs in 2016.

Medians from the USGS daily-statistics record, 1975 to 2026. A month at 100% is running at its own long-term median.

Dams near this gauge

The Army Corps' Bankhead Dam is 22 miles from this gauge. The Corps publishes no release schedule for this project; its last observed release and elevations load below.

• Bankhead Dam 22 miles