Silver River level at Ocala
Florida · Paddling & whitewater
Measured at USGS 02239501 — SILVER RIVER NEAR OCALA, FL
Reading taken · as of 58 min ago
Too low for most boats — rocky and technical
At 399 CFS, this gauge is in the lowest 5% of the 93 years USGS has recorded for this date (1933–2026), at 52% of the 764 CFS median.
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Flow history at Ocala
Daily values from USGS 02239501, updated every 15 to 60 minutes. Provisional.
About Silver River at Ocala
This is one of the longest continuous records on the site. USGS has published daily values here since 1 October 1932, a series of 34,326 days, and the daily statistics window runs 1933 to 2026, about 94 years.
Over all of it the river barely moves. The published monthly medians run from 686 CFS in June to 772 in October, a spread of about twelve percent from the lowest month to the highest. The entire daily record fits between 141 CFS on 25 June 2012 and 1,290 CFS on 7 October 1960. USGS reports the drainage area for this station as zero, which is not a gap in the data: there is no delineated surface catchment, and what the gauge measures is spring discharge arriving from underground.
Silver River at Ocala — common questions
6 questions
Should I expect this gauge to react to rain?
Not in the way a runoff river does. With no surface drainage area on file and a twelve percent spread between the lowest and highest monthly medians, what moves this number is regional groundwater over months rather than a storm over days. A reading well off its normal here is a bigger signal than the same departure would be on a rain-fed river.
When was the river highest and lowest?
The highest daily mean in 94 years of record is 1,290 CFS, on 7 October 1960, which is also the largest of the sixty-nine annual peaks on file. The lowest is 141 CFS on 25 June 2012. Four of the five largest peaks on record fall in October or November.
How closely does the Rainbow River track this one?
Very closely. Over 22,538 days of shared record going back to January 1965, the Rainbow at Dunnellon, 27.1 miles away, correlates with this gauge at 0.883 in log flow, and this one runs at a median of about 1.04 times the Rainbow's discharge. Two spring rivers drawing on the same aquifer, running at nearly the same volume, and moving together.
How fast can Silver River at Ocala come up?
Fast. It is free-flowing, so rain upstream moves it directly. Several feet in a few hours is normal after a heavy storm.
Is Silver River at Ocala high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for late September here is 764 CFS, from 93 years of record (1933–2026). Today sits in the lowest 5% of those years, at 52% 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 02239501 every 15 to 60 minutes. This page refreshes from USGS when you open it, and the reading is provisional until USGS reviews it. The timestamp is in the gauge's local time.