Elk River level at Elk City
Kansas · Fishing & wading
Measured at USGS 07170060 — ELK R BL ELK CITY LK, KS · NWS forecast point ELCK1
Reading taken · as of 28 min ago
Below normal — good wading, low and clear
At 3.0 CFS, this gauge is in the lowest quarter of the 38 years USGS has recorded for this date (1966–2026), at 33% of the 9.1 CFS median.
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Flow history at Elk City
Daily values from USGS 07170060, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for ELCK1 reissued through the day. Provisional.
About Elk River at Elk City
Two parts of this station's record stopped a long time ago. The annual peak series ends on 14 May 2002, so nothing in the last twenty-four years appears in it, and the nearest peer gauge's record ends in the same year. The live reading above is current; several of the historical comparisons around it are not.
The daily record continues, and it describes a tailwater below Elk City Lake with a fourteen to one seasonal swing: published monthly medians of 176 CFS in June against 12 in September, October and November. Daily statistics cover 1966 to 2026, though the series holds only 13,969 values across those sixty-one years, so it is not continuous either. The extremes are 11,600 CFS on 4 October 1986 and zero on 4 May 1966.
Reservoir feeding this stretch
Flow here is set by releases from Elk City Lake. A full pool usually means more water on its way down.
Elk River at Elk City — common questions
6 questions
Why is the annual peak record so out of date?
That is how USGS publishes it for this station: thirty-seven annual peaks running from February 1966 to May 2002, and nothing since. The largest is 11,900 CFS at 33.36 feet on 4 October 1986, followed by 9,700 CFS in July 1976. Any large event on this river in the last twenty-four years will not be in that list.
Are flood stages published here?
No. The NWS forecast point, listed as Elk River below Elk City Lake, has no action, minor, moderate or major stage defined and no historical crests on file. Between that and the closed peak record, this page has very little flood context to offer, which is worth stating rather than papering over.
How good is the Big Hill Creek comparison?
Dated. Big Hill Creek at Cherryvale is 15.6 miles away and the two gauges share 10,847 days, but the overlap runs from October 1965 to September 2002 and stops there. Across it they correlate at 0.532 and this gauge runs at a median of about 29 times Big Hill Creek's flow. A ratio that large and an overlap that old together mean the figure says little about how the two rivers relate today.
How do releases from Elk City Lake affect this stretch?
Directly and fast. When the dam generates, flow here can climb by an order of magnitude within the hour, with no rain anywhere in the basin. That sudden release is the real hazard on a tailwater. The pool level is on lakelvl.com, linked below.
Is Elk River at Elk City high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 9.1 CFS, from 38 years of record (1966–2026). Today sits in the lowest quarter of those years, at 33% 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 07170060 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for ELCK1 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.