Watauga River below Watauga Dam 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 03483950 sits on the Watauga River and reads everything draining 468 square miles of the Watauga basin.

Where this gauge sits in the drainage

Watauga Lake sits immediately upstream, so dam releases rather than rainfall set the flow here. One gauged site sits upstream of here. The closest is Watauga River near Sugar Grove, NC, reading 92 square miles. This gauge adds the 376 square miles that drain in between. Downstream the next reading comes from Watauga River below Wilbur Dam, TN at 471 square miles, so what passes this gauge is about 99% of the water measured there. Water passing here goes on to Watauga River at Elizabethton, TN. It then enters Boone Lake, below which releases set the flow.

TVA dams near this gauge

TVA's Watauga Dam sits 1 mile from this gauge and its releases set what this gauge reads. Planned generation, lake level and tailwater elevation for it load below when TVA has published them.

• Watauga Dam 1 mile
• Wilbur Dam 2 miles
• South Holston Dam 14 miles
• Boone Dam 19 miles