INTRODUCTION

This publication is a compilation of the calendar year observed daily river levels, computed daily flow rates, and stream flow measurements of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Most stations are within the boundaries of the St. Louis Engineer District.

Traditionally, surveyors and mapmakers tried to simplify their task by using the average (or mean) sea level as the definition of zero elevation, because the sea surface is available worldwide. For this reason, the zero surface to which elevations or heights (including river levels) were referred was formerly called "Sea Level Datum of 1929" or "Mean Seal Level (msl)" in this series of reports.

The zero surface currently in use is the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD). This datum was obtained by taking the average sea level over a period of about 19 years at 26 tidegauging stations along the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Coasts.

Although the datum was derived using average tidal measurements, it is not meant to represent local mean sea level at any specific place or time. In addition, while NGVD represents a standard zero surface in both Canada and the United States, it should not be confused with zero gage datum.

In this publication, both the time of the readings and the zero gage datum of each gage appear directly over the tabulation. Central Standard Time/Daylight Savings Time is used. Stage readings occur daily at 8:00 AM and discharges are mean daily inflow or outflow estimates unless stated otherwise. The station mileages for the Mississippi River are the distances from the mouth or the Ohio. The station mileage for a tributary is generally measured from the mouth of the tributary.

The discharge or flow rate is the quantity of water flowing past a cross section of the stream in a unit of time, and is expressed in cubic feet per second (cfs). The location of the discharge range is given in the footnotes after the tabulation of observed discharges for each station.

DATA FILES AVAILABLE ON THIS SERVER

The files located on this server are organized by there DATREP ID (i.e. storage ID). To illustrate how the files can be downloaded or viewed, first navigate to the through the website until you find the gage of interest.