NOAA River Gauges

I am attempting to be come more familiar with the NOAA River Gauge information.
I am looking at Red Wing and it says 9.1. The axis describes this as “stage”.
I went “upstream” and it shows 675. The axis describes this as “Tailwater”.
Looking for help on the differences (I assume they relate somehow) and how to interpret the two different descriptions.
Thanks

Steve

The left side of the graph tells you what the water level is. Maybe someone else can chime in on how that’s calculated. Anyway, that’s what the 9.1 number is. I really only pay attention to that number to see which direction the water levels are moving. The right hand side of the graph tells you how much water is being pushed through the dam. As you get more familiar with the river, you’ll be able to tell where to fish based on that information. You’ll also learn pretty quick where you can and can’t access on the river because of the water level.

Hey Steve – The axis title is arbitrary in this case.

If you look at the lock and dam 3 gauge it shows the “latest observation” in the upper left of the graph. The latest observation is 675.5 ft. If you look in the lower left it says “Datum 0.”

The latest observation for the Redwing gauge is 8.93 ft. The datum is 665.13 ft.

If you’re trying to compare the two readings you have to add the datum for each. That makes it apples-to-apples (elevation above mean sea level).

L&D #3 is at 675.5 + 0 = 675.5 ft.
Redwing is currently at 665.13 + 8.93 ft = 674.06 ft.

Jason

Thanks for the replies.
I take another look…

I wish I would of seen your post before I typed out what Stage was. JasonP did a great job of explaining Stage over Sea Level.

I was told by someone at the Corp, that Stage is only used at places that had a river boat port. Never could confirm this but it makes sense. Most river rats are in tune with Stage.

And the predicted Stage tells me my toes are going to get wet.