Neuse River level at Falls
North Carolina · Fishing & wading
Measured at USGS 02087183 — NEUSE RIVER NEAR FALLS, NC · NWS forecast point NEUN7
Reading taken · as of 28 min ago
Below normal — good wading, low and clear
At 109 CFS, this gauge is in the lowest quarter of the 43 years USGS has recorded for this date (1983–2026), at 71% of the 153 CFS median.
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Flood stages at Falls
National Weather Service categories for gauge NEUN7, WFO RAH. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Major flood 8.0 ft
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Moderate flood 7.0 ft
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Minor flood 6.0 ft
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Action 5.0 ft · 5,714 CFS
- Right now 1.27 ft
Flow history at Falls
Daily values from USGS 02087183, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for NEUN7 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Falls
1 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 8.05 ft | 7,650 CFS | Sep 16, 1996 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About Neuse River at Falls
Three feet separates action stage from major flood at this forecast point: action 5 feet, minor 6, moderate 7, major 8. It is one of the most compressed ladders on the site, and in the whole NWS record here exactly one crest has been logged, 8.05 feet on 16 September 1996, which is at the major rung.
Be careful comparing that ladder with the historical peak stages on this page. The USGS annual peak record lists stages of 23 to 25 feet for the large events of the 1970s, on a different gage datum from the forecast point's, so the two sets of feet are not the same feet. The discharge record is unambiguous: daily statistics covering 1983 to 2026, monthly medians from 107 CFS in December to 567 in March, a record high daily mean of 13,600 CFS on 17 July 1975, and a record low of zero on 17 September 2018.
Reservoir feeding this stretch
Flow here is set by releases from Falls Lake. A full pool usually means more water on its way down.
Neuse River at Falls — common questions
6 questions
How can a river below a dam read zero?
By being shut off. The daily mean on 17 September 2018 was 0 CFS at this station below Falls Lake, which is a release decision rather than a drought. The same control shows in the seasonal medians, which run only five to one across the year on a 771 square mile basin.
Why do the flood stages and the peak stages disagree?
They are measured against different datums. The NWS ladder at Neuse River Below Falls Dam runs 5, 6, 7 and 8 feet; the USGS annual peak list gives 25.21 feet for July 1975 and 24.47 for February 1979. Both are correct on their own scale. Use the ladder for the distance-from-flood figure on this page and the peak list for the size of past events, and do not subtract one from the other.
Does the Neuse at Clayton track this gauge?
Well, as you would expect on the same river 22.5 miles apart. Over 20,537 shared days since June 1970 the two correlate at 0.868, and this gauge runs at a median of about 0.45 times the Clayton reading, which is the drainage the river picks up between the dam and Clayton showing up in the ratio.
How do releases from Falls 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 Neuse River at Falls high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 153 CFS, from 43 years of record (1983–2026). Today sits in the lowest quarter of those years, at 71% 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 02087183 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for NEUN7 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.