Boulder Creek level at Boulder
Colorado · Tubing & floating
Measured at USGS 06730200 — BOULDER CREEK AT NORTH 75TH ST. NEAR BOULDER, CO · NWS forecast point BOLC2
Reading taken · as of 13 min ago
Up and moving — a faster float than usual
At 70 CFS, this gauge is in the highest quarter of the 39 years USGS has recorded for this date (1987–2026), at 188% of the 37 CFS median. The stage is 2.5 ft below the NWS action stage of 7.5 ft.
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Flood stages at Boulder
National Weather Service categories for gauge BOLC2, WFO BOU. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Major flood 10.0 ft
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Moderate flood 9.0 ft
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Minor flood 8.0 ft
- 8.0 ft CONSIDERABLE LOWLAND FLOODING IN EAST BOULDER.
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Action 7.5 ft
- 7.5 ft WATER OVERFLOWS BANKS INTO LOW LYING AREAS.
- Right now 4.97 ft
Flow history at Boulder
Daily values from USGS 06730200, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for BOLC2 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Boulder
12 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 10.60 ft | 8,400 CFS | Sep 13, 2013 |
| 7.85 ft | 1,950 CFS | May 17, 1995 |
| 7.41 ft | 1,460 CFS | May 9, 2015 |
| 7.32 ft | 1,500 CFS | Jun 13, 1997 |
| 7.16 ft | 1,330 CFS | Aug 5, 1999 |
| 7.11 ft | 120 CFS | May 30, 2014 |
| 7.00 ft | 1,180 CFS | Jul 17, 2000 |
| 6.98 ft | 1,220 CFS | Jul 13, 2011 |
| 6.97 ft | 1,000 CFS | May 26, 1996 |
| 6.76 ft | 1,080 CFS | Jun 9, 1987 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About Boulder Creek at Boulder
September 2013 sits in this station's record as an outlier of a different order from everything else it has measured. The instantaneous peak reached 8,400 CFS at a crest of 10.6 feet on 13 September. The next largest peak in the record is 2,050 CFS, and the next highest crest is 7.85 feet.
The ordinary condition is nothing like that. USGS publishes statistics for 1987 to 2026 on a 307 square mile drainage at 5,106 feet, and across them the monthly medians run from 24 CFS in February to 228 in June. The lowest daily mean on file is 0.87 CFS, in March 2005. The NWS quotes its lowest impact at action stage, 7.5 feet, as water overflowing banks into low lying areas.
Boulder Creek at Boulder — common questions
6 questions
How exceptional was the 2013 flood on this gauge?
By the numbers, extreme. The peak of 8,400 CFS on 13 September 2013 is roughly four times the next largest peak the station has recorded, and the crest of 10.6 feet is 2.75 feet above the second highest. The daily mean the day before reached 4,770 CFS on a creek whose January median is 27 CFS. It remains the reference event for this reach.
What does this creek normally run?
Small. The published monthly medians are 24 to 30 CFS from November through March, rising to 142 in May and 228 in June as snowmelt arrives, then falling back through the late summer. The statistics cover 1987 to 2026, so about 40 years sit behind the median the percent of normal figure uses.
Does Clear Creek at Golden move with this gauge?
Broadly, yes. Over 14,594 days of overlapping record since 1986 the two correlate at 0.771, and this creek runs at a median of about half of Clear Creek's flow 20.8 miles south. Both are Front Range snowmelt streams on the same schedule, so a big snowpack year shows on both, but a single thunderstorm cell often shows on only one.
Does rain upstream change Boulder Creek at Boulder quickly?
Yes. It is free-flowing, so rain upstream moves it directly. Several feet in a few hours is normal after a heavy storm.
Is Boulder Creek at Boulder high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 37 CFS, from 39 years of record (1987–2026). Today sits in the highest quarter of those years, at 188% of the median. The comparison is what makes the raw number mean anything: the same reading is a drought on one river and a flood on another.
How often does this reading update?
USGS transmits from gauge 06730200 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for BOLC2 a few times a day — more often when the river is rising. This page refreshes from both when you open it. The timestamp is in the gauge's local time.