Colorado River level at Moab
Utah · Tubing & floating
Measured at USGS 09180500 — COLORADO RIVER NEAR CISCO, UT · NWS forecast point CLRU1
Reading taken · as of 28 min ago
Running thin — a slow, scrapey float
At 2,500 CFS, this gauge is in the lowest quarter of the 107 years USGS has recorded for this date (1914–2026), at 70% of the 3,550 CFS median.
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Flood stages at Moab
National Weather Service categories for gauge CLRU1, WFO GJT. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Major flood 23.0 ft
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Moderate flood 21.0 ft
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Minor flood 19.0 ft
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Action 13.3 ft
- Right now 2.29 ft
NWS forecast: 2.37 ft by .
Flow history at Moab
Daily values from USGS 09180500, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for CLRU1 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Moab
12 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 21.52 ft | 66,100 CFS | Jun 3, 1914 |
| 20.70 ft | 70,300 CFS | May 27, 1984 |
| 19.70 ft | 76,800 CFS | Jun 9, 1917 |
| 19.23 ft | 61,900 CFS | Jun 27, 1983 |
| 18.92 ft | 64,200 CFS | Jun 9, 1957 |
| 18.84 ft | 64,400 CFS | May 15, 1941 |
| 17.32 ft | 65,000 CFS | Jun 1, 1928 |
| 17.18 ft | 57,200 CFS | Jun 9, 1952 |
| 17.04 ft | 51,900 CFS | Jun 18, 1995 |
| 16.70 ft | 59,600 CFS | May 27, 1929 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About Colorado River at Moab
USGS publishes this station as Colorado River near Cisco, UT, some distance downstream of Moab, and the peak record it carries starts in 1884, twenty-nine years before the daily series begins. That 4 July 1884 peak, 125,000 CFS, has no stage recorded against it and is two thirds larger than anything since.
The stage record and the flow record have drifted apart over the century that followed. The highest crest on file is 21.52 feet from June 1914, produced by 66,100 CFS; the May 1984 peak of 70,300 CFS, a larger flow, crested lower at 20.7 feet. There is also a date discrepancy worth noting: the NWS crest list dates the 1917 event to 9 June while USGS dates the annual peak to 19 June. Day to day the gauge runs on snowmelt, with published monthly medians climbing from 2,770 CFS in January to 19,600 in June across a 24,100 square mile basin.
Colorado River at Moab — common questions
6 questions
How far back does the record go?
Further for peaks than for daily values. The annual peak series opens on 4 July 1884 and holds 108 entries; the daily series opens on 1 October 1913 and the published statistics window is 1914 to 2026, about 108 years. The daily record runs from 640 CFS on 21 July 1934 to 73,200 CFS on 19 June 1917.
What are the flood categories here?
A full ladder, unusually: action stage 13.3 feet, minor flood 19, moderate 21 and major 23, at the Cisco forecast point. The record crest of 21.52 feet from June 1914 sits between moderate and major, and only three of the twelve crests on file have reached the minor rung.
Is there a peer gauge for comparison?
No. The nearest discharge-reporting gauge on this site is the Colorado at Glenwood Springs, 116.7 miles away, well outside the 70 mile limit used for peer correlations. This page therefore carries no correlation or flow-ratio figure.
Does rain upstream change Colorado River at Moab 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 Colorado River at Moab high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 3,550 CFS, from 107 years of record (1914–2026). Today sits in the lowest quarter of those years, at 70% 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 09180500 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for CLRU1 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.