Gulf Coast Gauges

Apalachicola River near Sumatra water level

USGS gauge 02359170 · Franklin County · Apalachicola and Tallahassee · NWS gauge SMAF1

4.44 ft

gage height, Oct 23, 2026 at 3:45 PM EDT · 2 hours ago

Below NWS minor flood stage
5.1 ft
NWS action stage
8.0 ft
NWS minor flood stage
9.5 ft
NWS moderate flood stage
11.5 ft
NWS major flood stage
13.5 ft
Highest since 1979 (USGS)
15.36 ft (March 15, 1998)
Usual range
3.20 to 6.18 ft

USGS marks recent readings as provisional: they can be revised after review.

No National Weather Service alert covering Franklin County was active when this page was generated (Oct 23, 2026 at 6:05 PM EDT). Alerts are issued and expire at any time; the current list is at alerts.weather.gov.

Last 7 days

3.2 4.7 6.2 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct 21 Oct 22 Oct 23

Hourly averages of USGS readings. The shaded band is this gauge's usual range: the middle 80% of its readings since September 11, 2026.

How to read this gauge

Gage height is the height of the water surface above the gauge's zero point. This gauge's zero is set at 0 ft NGVD29, so its gage height is the water surface elevation above that datum. It is not a water depth.

The flood stages are the National Weather Service's, on the same scale as the gage height; they are the NWS's references for this location, not estimates made here.

Daily highs and lows since September 11, 2026

3.0 4.7 6.4 2026-09-11 – 2026-10-23 · bars are daily low to high

Annual peaks since 1979

In 47 complete water years of comparable USGS records (since 1979), the highest peak was 15.36 ft on March 15, 1998. So far in water year 2027 (since October 1) the highest reading is 6.40 ft on October 14, 2026, higher than the annual peak in 2 of 47 years.

5 8 11 13 16 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 major 13.5 ft moderate 11.5 ft minor 9.5 ft action 8 ft Water year 1979: 10.70 ft on March 3, 1979 Water year 1980: 11.48 ft on April 5, 1980 Water year 1981: 8.21 ft on April 9, 1981 Water year 1982: 9.30 ft on February 11, 1982 Water year 1983: 9.89 ft on April 15, 1983 Water year 1984: 9.71 ft on March 11, 1984 Water year 1985: 7.82 ft on February 15, 1985 Water year 1986: 8.17 ft on February 15, 1986 Water year 1987: 9.49 ft on January 29, 1987 Water year 1988: 7.40 ft on February 24, 1988 Water year 1989: 8.30 ft on June 28, 1989 Water year 1990: 13.82 ft on March 24, 1990 Water year 1991: 10.60 ft on March 10, 1991 Water year 1992: 8.89 ft on February 25, 1992 Water year 1993: 10.04 ft on December 3, 1992 Water year 1994: 15.05 ft on July 13, 1994 Water year 1995: 10.05 ft on February 23, 1995 Water year 1996: 9.83 ft on February 9, 1996 Water year 1997: 8.67 ft on March 1, 1997 Water year 1998: 15.36 ft on March 15, 1998 Water year 1999: 8.29 ft on October 5, 1998 Water year 2000: 6.81 ft on April 9, 2000 Water year 2001: 10.29 ft on March 26, 2001 Water year 2002: 6.13 ft on March 4, 2002 Water year 2003: 8.99 ft on May 16, 2003 Water year 2004: 8.42 ft on September 23, 2004 Water year 2005: 13.71 ft on April 7, 2005 Water year 2006: 7.39 ft on March 5, 2006 Water year 2007: 6.89 ft on March 12, 2007 Water year 2008: 8.29 ft on February 28, 2008 Water year 2009: 13.20 ft on April 6, 2009 Water year 2010: 11.75 ft on December 21, 2009 Water year 2011: 6.81 ft on February 14, 2011 Water year 2012: 6.29 ft on March 11, 2012 Water year 2013: 11.65 ft on March 2, 2013 Water year 2014: 10.94 ft on April 14, 2014 Water year 2015: 7.75 ft on April 26, 2015 Water year 2016: 13.83 ft on January 1, 2016 Water year 2017: 8.81 ft on January 10, 2017 Water year 2018: 7.86 ft on February 17, 2018 Water year 2020: 13.12 ft on March 13, 2020 Water year 2021: 8.94 ft on February 24, 2021 Water year 2022: 9.07 ft on April 14, 2022 Water year 2023: 8.66 ft on April 4, 2023 Water year 2024: 11.16 ft on March 16, 2024 Water year 2025: 9.89 ft on October 4, 2024 Water year 2026: 7.01 ft on June 27, 2026 Water year 2027 so far: 6.40 ft on October 14, 2026 1998 1994 2016

Each dot is the highest gage height of a water year (October to September), from the USGS annual peak record, with recent years USGS has not published yet taken from its 15-minute readings and this site's own; hover a dot for its date. Dashed lines are NWS flood stages.

NWS historic crests

DateCrestAbove minor flood stage
March 15, 199815.36 ft5.9 ft
July 13, 199415.05 ft5.6 ft
January 1, 201613.83 ft4.3 ft
March 24, 199013.82 ft4.3 ft
April 5, 200513.69 ft4.2 ft
April 5, 200913.19 ft3.7 ft
March 12, 202013.13 ft3.6 ft
February 2, 197812.92 ft3.4 ft

The highest crests the National Weather Service lists for this gauge, as published. They can differ from the USGS annual peaks above: USGS records the year's highest gage height, which is not always the crest the NWS lists for the same flood.

Download the readings

apalachicola-river-near-sumatra.csv (CSV): every reading stored for this gauge since September 11, 2026, 4,048 rows, with time in UTC and Central, gage height in feet, and the USGS approval status.

Source. Gage height from the U.S. Geological Survey; flood stages and historic crests from the NWS National Water Prediction Service. This site is not affiliated with either agency.