Fryingpan River level at Basalt
Colorado · Fishing & wading
Measured at USGS 09080400 — FRYINGPAN RIVER NEAR RUEDI, CO. · NWS forecast point RUDC2
Reading taken · as of 1 hour ago
About normal for the date
At 124 CFS, this gauge is inside the middle half of the 57 years USGS has recorded for this date (1969–2026), at 73% of the 170 CFS median. The stage is 1.5 ft below the NWS action stage of 3.0 ft.
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Flood stages at Basalt
National Weather Service categories for gauge RUDC2, WFO GJT. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Major flood 8.0 ft
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Moderate flood 5.5 ft
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Minor flood 3.4 ft
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Action 3.0 ft
- Right now 1.54 ft
NWS forecast: 1.54 ft by .
Flow history at Basalt
Daily values from USGS 09080400, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for RUDC2 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Basalt
12 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 5.16 ft | 2,690 CFS | Jun 18, 1965 |
| 3.89 ft | 1,390 CFS | Jun 24, 1983 |
| 3.82 ft | 1,720 CFS | May 26, 1967 |
| 3.61 ft | 1,200 CFS | Jun 15, 1985 |
| 3.57 ft | 1,140 CFS | Jul 4, 1984 |
| 3.56 ft | 1,110 CFS | Jul 11, 1995 |
| 3.50 ft | 1,400 CFS | Sep 16, 1976 |
| 3.48 ft | 1,130 CFS | May 29, 1993 |
| 3.43 ft | 1,000 CFS | Jun 3, 1997 |
| 3.38 ft | 965 CFS | May 1, 1991 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About Fryingpan River at Basalt
This gauge is published by USGS as Frying Pan River near Ruedi, and it drains 237 square miles at an elevation of 7,478 feet. The flood ladder the NWS attaches to it is the tightest on this site: action stage 3.0 feet, minor flood 3.4, moderate 5.5, major 8.0. Four tenths of a foot separates the first two rungs.
That compression matters because the river almost never goes there. The highest crest on record is 5.16 feet, on 18 June 1965, and the second highest is 3.89 feet in June 1983. Nothing in the intervening six decades has come within a foot of the record. The daily record high of 2,370 CFS is from the same June 1965 event, which sits ahead of the 1969 start of the published statistics window.
Fryingpan River at Basalt — common questions
6 questions
Why are action stage and minor flood only 0.4 feet apart here?
That is how the NWS office has set the categories for this forecast point, and on a small, steep, dam controlled reach it is not unreasonable: the channel does not have much room between full and over. The practical consequence is that a few tenths of a foot on this gauge covers a lot of ground, so the distance from action stage shown above is worth more attention than the same distance would be on a larger river.
What is the highest this river has been?
5.16 feet, on 18 June 1965, which is also the date of the highest daily mean discharge in the record at 2,370 CFS. The next highest crest is 3.89 feet in June 1983. The record predates the 1969 to 2026 window that the seasonal median on this page is computed from.
How does this gauge relate to the Colorado at Glenwood Springs?
It is a tributary scale version of it. Across 21,903 days on which both gauges reported, between 1966 and 2026, the Fryingpan's daily flow has run at a median of about six percent of the Colorado's at Glenwood Springs, and the two move together with a correlation of 0.69 in log terms. Loosely coupled: the same weather reaches both, but Ruedi decides what this one does with it.
What makes the flow change on Fryingpan River at Basalt?
Rain upstream, plus seasonal baseflow. The 12-month chart shows how it behaves through the year.
Is Fryingpan River at Basalt high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 170 CFS, from 57 years of record (1969–2026). Today sits inside the middle half of those years, at 73% 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 09080400 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for RUDC2 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.