Flow Rates at the Dams

I’ve noticed that the flow rates are generally lower the farther north you go . Is this common? Why ? Check out todays Flow Rates and River Stages on this home page.

ec

ecnook

Flow rates are measured in CFS – cubic feet/second and as the Mississippi River makes its way south, more and more tributaries enter the river and “add” their volume of water to the totals you’re reading on the stage and flow page. At the Red Wing dam we might have a reading of 12,000 cfs and that reading will be much higher at Alma as the Vermillion, Hay, Isabella, Rush, Chippewa, etc., all flow in to pool 4 south of the Lock & Dam Red Wing and BEFORE the river gets to Alma for your next major stage and flow reading. This scenario plays out on all the other pools too.

The further south ya’ get, the more volume our beloved river moves through each respective dam….

Thats alot of cubes!! i’ve been watching the changes and noticing them all from Red Wing down to us. Note the difference between Lynxville and Guttenberg.That Wisconsin River must have alot to do with this. Thanks James

ec

Those flow rates really jump during spring high water. We’re right at about 12,000 +/- cfs on pool 4 right now and last year during the flood I believe we were right up around 450,000 cfs for the highest flow rate I can remember seeing.

That’s really moving some water!

Hence : MOVING WATER GUIDE SERVICE ?

ec

James,

Maybe that was at the Gulf of Mexico…. Did a quick query on the the USACE website to verify the high water mark last spring and it was between 170,000 and 180,000 cfs at L&D 3 in late April and early May… Did a screen capture and attached the plot of the flow during April and May of 2001… Still a bunch of water….

Barc

Thanks for setting me straight. The attachment didn’t work… maybe the file was too large. Could have sworn I saw it over 400K cfs… but I’m sure you’re right. Time and old-age does horrible things to a person’s memory…LOL

I changed the file type to .gif… It looks like it will make the size restriction this time.. If not, here is the url for the website – lots of data available out there…. http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/projects/

Barc