Water
River gauges
Actual instruments in the water, reporting every 15 minutes — these are measurements, not estimates. USGS publishes all of these as provisional and subject to revision; anything wrong with an individual reading is called out in the Notes column.
Rock River
| Gauge | Measurement | Reading | Taken | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock River At Afton, WI #05430500 | Streamflow | 2,710 cfs | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — |
| Gage height | 5.45 ft | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — | |
| Water surface elevation | 747.81 ft | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — | |
| Rock River At Rockton, IL #05437500 | Streamflow | 4,900 cfs | 2:30 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — |
| Gage height | 5.22 ft | 2:30 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — |
Turtle Creek
| Gauge | Measurement | Reading | Taken | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turtle Creek At Carvers Rock Road Near Clinton, WI #05431486 | Streamflow | 156 cfs | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — |
| Gage height | 3.96 ft | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — | |
| Water surface elevation | 827.23 ft | 3:00 AM, Mon Oct 19 | — |
Streamflow
Streamflow is measured in cubic feet per second — the volume of water passing the gauge every second. A cubic foot is about seven and a half gallons, so a thousand cfs is roughly 7,500 gallons a second going past. It is the honest measure of how much river there is, independent of how wide or deep the channel happens to be where the gauge sits.
What counts as a lot depends entirely on the river and the time of year, so USGS keeps the whole daily record and summarises it by calendar date. Below is today's date compared against every October 19 on record.
| Gauge | Now | Standing | Typical range | Median | Record low | Record high | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock River At Afton, WI | 2,710 cfs | above normal | 644–2,050 cfs middle half of years | 1,160 cfs | 165 cfs 1934 | 9,130 cfs 2018 | 112 1914–2026 |
| Rock River At Rockton, IL | 4,900 cfs | above normal | 1,655–4,478 cfs middle half of years | 3,055 cfs | 727 cfs 1958 | 19,500 cfs 2018 | 98 1903–2026 |
| Turtle Creek At Carvers Rock Road Near Clinton, WI | 156 cfs | above normal | 57–137 cfs middle half of years | 84 cfs | 23 cfs 1958 | 508 cfs 1984 | 87 1939–2026 |
The typical range is the middle half of all years on record. Sitting inside it means the river is doing what it usually does at this point in the year, which is worth knowing before reading anything into a single number.
Flood stage levels
How high is too high. The National Weather Service sets these thresholds per gauge from what actually causes problems locally.
| Gauge | Now | Standing | Action | Minor | Moderate | Major |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rock River At Afton, WI NWS | 5.45 ft | below action stage 2.55 ft below action | 8.0 ft | 9.0 ft | 11.1 ft | 12.2 ft |
| Rock River At Rockton, IL NWS | 5.22 ft | below action stage 3.28 ft below action | 8.5 ft | 10.0 ft | 11.0 ft | 14.0 ft |
| Turtle Creek At Carvers Rock Road Near Clinton, WI NWS | 3.95 ft | below action stage 2.05 ft below action | 6.0 ft | 8.0 ft | 11.0 ft | 12.0 ft |
Not a flood warning. These are thresholds and the latest observation, not a forecast. During high water, use water.noaa.gov and your local NWS office for warnings and river forecasts.