Buffalo National River level at Pruitt
Arkansas · Tubing & floating
Measured at USGS 07055680 — Buffalo River at Pruitt, AR
Reading taken · as of 13 min ago
Right around its normal summer float level
At 6.9 CFS, this gauge is inside the middle half of the 18 years USGS has recorded for this date (2008–2026), at 53% of the 13 CFS median.
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Flow history at Pruitt
Daily values from USGS 07055680, updated every 15 to 60 minutes. Provisional.
About Buffalo National River at Pruitt
On 5 November 2024 this gauge recorded a peak of 67,000 CFS at 34.67 feet, two and a half times larger than any other event in its record. The next highest of the eighteen annual peaks on file is 26,900 CFS at 27.16 feet from April 2011.
The record is short, which is part of why. Daily statistics cover 2008 to 2026, about eighteen years, with the series opening on 14 June 2008. Within it the river swings harder through the year than almost anything else on the site: published monthly medians of 353 CFS in April against 11 in October, a thirty-two to one range on a free-flowing 190 square mile drainage. The lowest daily mean on file is 0.56 CFS, from 11 August 2012.
Buffalo National River at Pruitt — common questions
6 questions
How short is the record behind the comparison on this page?
Eighteen years. The daily series begins on 14 June 2008 and the published statistics window is 2008 to 2026, so the median this page compares against is drawn from a much smaller sample than the fifty to hundred year windows behind most gauges on this site. Eighteen Aprils is enough to see a pattern and not enough to be confident about a rare one.
Is there flood stage information here?
No. There is no NWS forecast point at Pruitt, so this page carries no flood categories, impact statements or crest list. The USGS annual peak record covers September 2008 to November 2024 and is led by the 67,000 CFS event of 5 November 2024.
Does the Ponca gauge upstream track this one?
Almost exactly. Buffalo at Ponca is 12.4 miles upstream on the same river, and over 6,650 shared days since June 2008 the two correlate at 0.967 in log flow, with this gauge running at a median of about 1.58 times the Ponca reading. That ratio is the drainage collected between the two stations, and at a correlation of 0.97 one is a reliable early look at the other.
Does rain upstream change Buffalo National River at Pruitt 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 Buffalo National River at Pruitt high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 13 CFS, from 18 years of record (2008–2026). Today sits inside the middle half of those years, at 53% 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 07055680 every 15 to 60 minutes. This page refreshes from USGS when you open it, and the reading is provisional until USGS reviews it. The timestamp is in the gauge's local time.