Haw River level at Moncure
North Carolina · Fishing & wading
Measured at USGS 02098206 — HAW RIVER NEAR MONCURE, NC · NWS forecast point HRMN7
Reading taken · as of 43 min ago
About normal for the date
At 557 CFS, this gauge is inside the middle half of the 12 years USGS has recorded for this date (2014–2026), at 124% of the 448 CFS median.
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Flood stages at Moncure
National Weather Service categories for gauge HRMN7, WFO RAH. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Moderate flood 18.0 ft
- 18.0 ft Estimated Minor Flood Stage
- 23.0 ft Estimated Moderate Flood Stage
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Minor flood 16.0 ft
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Action 16.0 ft
- Right now 2.19 ft
Flow history at Moncure
Daily values from USGS 02098206, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for HRMN7 reissued through the day. Provisional.
About Haw River at Moncure
This gauge carries 1,691 square miles of drainage and the dam two miles upstream carries 1,690, so what it reads is the release and almost nothing else. The daily record runs from 3 October 2011 and the shape of it is the shape of an operating schedule rather than a rainfall record: a median daily mean of 543 CFS, monthly medians from 1,680 CFS in January down to 384 in November, and across 5,425 days only five readings under 100 CFS and two under 50. The lowest daily mean on file is 17 CFS on 16 September 2018 and the highest is 13,800 CFS on 3 January 2019. A free flowing basin this size would spend far more of the year near the bottom of that range.
The lake is also why this gauge does not follow the Haw above it. The USGS gauge at Bynum, upstream of Jordan Lake, has a median daily mean of 535 CFS against 543 here, so the same water in the same quantity passes both points, yet over 5,425 days of shared record the two correlate at 0.154. Jordan Lake absorbs the storm and pays it back on a schedule of its own. Two miles below this gauge the Deep River comes in at Moncure and the two become the Cape Fear, which is where the release stops being readable on its own.
Reservoir feeding this stretch
Flow here is set by releases from Jordan Lake. A full pool usually means more water on its way down.
Haw River at Moncure — common questions
7 questions
Is this the flow coming out of Jordan Dam?
Effectively yes. The gauge sits about two miles below B. Everett Jordan Dam with 1,691 square miles of drainage against the dam's 1,690, so it picks up almost no watershed of its own and what it reads is the release. It is the closest published number to a dam discharge for this reservoir.
Is this the gauge for the Haw River whitewater run?
No. The paddled Haw is above Jordan Lake, on the reach the Bynum gauge covers, and that gauge is a different river as far as timing goes. The two have nearly the same median, 535 CFS at Bynum against 543 here, but correlate at only 0.154 across 5,425 days of shared record, because the lake sits between them. Use Bynum for the whitewater and this page for what leaves the dam.
Why not just read the Cape Fear gauge at Lillington?
Because Lillington is 22 miles downstream and below the Deep River confluence, so it reads a blend. Across 5,417 days of shared record the Deep supplies a median 34 percent of the combined flow at Moncure, 15 percent on a dry day and 67 percent on a wet one, and it correlates with this gauge at 0.175. Lillington answers what the Cape Fear is doing. It does not answer what the dam released.
What are the flood stages here, and is there a crest history?
The National Weather Service sets action and minor flood at 16 feet and moderate at 18, and labels both of those estimated rather than surveyed. No historical crests are published for this point and no routine forecast is issued for it, so the flood ladder on this page is thinner than on gauges with a long crest list. The Raleigh forecast office maintains it.
How do releases from Jordan 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 Haw River at Moncure high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 448 CFS, from 12 years of record (2014–2026). Today sits inside the middle half of those years, at 124% 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 02098206 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for HRMN7 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.