Gulf Coast Gauges

Calcasieu River near Oberlin water level

USGS gauge 08013500 · Allen Parish · Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana · NWS gauge OBCL1

1.01 ft

gage height, Oct 23, 2026 at 2:15 PM CDT · 3 hours ago

Below NWS minor flood stage
12.0 ft
NWS action stage
12.0 ft
NWS minor flood stage
13.0 ft
NWS moderate flood stage
15.0 ft
NWS major flood stage
19.0 ft
Highest since 1940 (USGS)
26.53 ft (May 19, 1953)
Usual range
1.03 to 1.18 ft

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

No National Weather Service alert covering Allen Parish was active when this page was generated (Oct 23, 2026 at 5:05 PM CDT). Alerts are issued and expire at any time; the current list is at alerts.weather.gov.

Last 7 days

1.0 1.3 1.5 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 this gauge's own zero point, which sits at 39.43 ft NGVD29. It is not a water depth and not an elevation: add 39.43 ft to get the water surface elevation.

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

1.0 1.2 1.5 2026-09-11 – 2026-10-23 · bars are daily low to high

Annual peaks since 1923

In 86 complete water years of comparable USGS records (since 1940), the highest peak was 26.53 ft on May 19, 1953. So far in water year 2027 (since October 1) the highest reading is 1.11 ft on October 2, 2026.

-1 6 14 21 29 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 major 19 ft moderate 15 ft minor 13 ft action 12 ft Water year 1923: 21.00 ft on April 7, 1923 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1924: 20.20 ft on December 24, 1923 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1939: 17.60 ft on January 18, 1939 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1940: 19.71 ft on August 9, 1940 Water year 1941: 19.39 ft on November 29, 1940 Water year 1942: 18.51 ft on November 5, 1941 Water year 1943: 13.56 ft on March 27, 1943 Water year 1944: 18.70 ft on May 8, 1944 Water year 1945: 20.00 ft on April 6, 1945 Water year 1946: 19.40 ft on January 12, 1946 Water year 1947: 19.90 ft on January 21, 1947 Water year 1948: 15.56 ft on February 17, 1948 Water year 1949: 18.82 ft on March 31, 1949 Water year 1950: 21.54 ft on February 16, 1950 Water year 1951: 17.83 ft on January 8, 1951 Water year 1952: 20.83 ft on April 27, 1952 Water year 1953: 26.53 ft on May 19, 1953 Water year 1954: 18.56 ft on May 4, 1954 Water year 1955: 18.76 ft on August 8, 1955 Water year 1956: 16.47 ft on February 12, 1956 Water year 1957: 15.96 ft on December 25, 1956 Water year 1958: 19.98 ft on November 15, 1957 Water year 1959: 16.71 ft on February 8, 1959 Water year 1960: 13.98 ft on March 4, 1960 Water year 1961: 18.93 ft on January 12, 1961 Water year 1962: 19.15 ft on December 19, 1961 Water year 1963: 14.23 ft on January 20, 1963 Water year 1964: 17.68 ft on March 8, 1964 Water year 1965: 17.89 ft on March 3, 1965 Water year 1966: 23.07 ft on February 14, 1966 Water year 1967: 19.40 ft on April 18, 1967 Water year 1968: 16.36 ft on January 12, 1968 Water year 1969: 16.70 ft on May 13, 1969 Water year 1970: 11.53 ft on May 4, 1970 Water year 1971: 18.25 ft on October 13, 1970 Water year 1972: 18.77 ft on December 8, 1971 Water year 1973: 19.98 ft on March 25, 1973 Water year 1974: 17.82 ft on January 30, 1974 Water year 1975: 20.25 ft on May 7, 1975 Water year 1976: 16.85 ft on May 16, 1976 Water year 1977: 16.55 ft on March 9, 1977 Water year 1978: 17.46 ft on November 30, 1977 Water year 1979: 20.70 ft on September 21, 1979 Water year 1980: 20.04 ft on March 30, 1980 Water year 1981: 16.68 ft on June 12, 1981 Water year 1982: 15.26 ft on April 22, 1982 Water year 1983: 24.33 ft on December 30, 1982 Water year 1984: 19.49 ft on February 16, 1984 Water year 1985: 20.42 ft on October 23, 1984 Water year 1986: 20.81 ft on November 2, 1985 Water year 1987: 18.35 ft on November 30, 1986 Water year 1988: 17.97 ft on November 20, 1987 Water year 1989: 24.70 ft on July 2, 1989 Water year 1990: 19.75 ft on January 25, 1990 Water year 1991: 19.00 ft on May 9, 1991 Water year 1992: 19.88 ft on December 15, 1991 Water year 1993: 16.06 ft on April 17, 1993 Water year 1994: 20.11 ft on February 1, 1994 Water year 1995: 20.18 ft on March 11, 1995 Water year 1996: 14.34 ft on December 21, 1995 Water year 1997: 17.81 ft on March 1, 1997 Water year 1998: 19.99 ft on January 13, 1998 Water year 1999: 18.54 ft on April 10, 1999 Water year 2000: 9.83 ft on May 5, 2000 Water year 2002: 19.13 ft on December 2, 2001 Water year 2003: 20.17 ft on November 6, 2002 Water year 2004: 20.87 ft on May 16, 2004 Water year 2005: 18.96 ft on November 29, 2004 Water year 2006: 10.15 ft on May 1, 2006 Water year 2007: 18.96 ft on January 5, 2007 Water year 2008: 17.84 ft on September 16, 2008 Water year 2009: 15.71 ft on April 21, 2009 Water year 2010: 16.54 ft on November 5, 2009 Water year 2011: 7.09 ft on March 15, 2011 Water year 2012: 19.94 ft on March 25, 2012 Water year 2013: 18.21 ft on January 14, 2013 Water year 2014: 11.19 ft on February 14, 2014 Water year 2015: 14.14 ft on January 13, 2015 Water year 2016: 22.88 ft on March 14, 2016 Water year 2017: 22.16 ft on April 6, 2017 Water year 2018: 20.74 ft on April 2, 2018 Water year 2019: 18.90 ft on January 7, 2019 Water year 2020: 14.77 ft on March 27, 2020 Water year 2021: 21.88 ft on October 11, 2020 Water year 2022: 15.26 ft on March 25, 2022 Water year 2023: 16.00 ft on February 10, 2023 Water year 2024: 18.98 ft on April 15, 2024 Water year 2025: 19.22 ft on November 11, 2024 Water year 2026: 16.10 ft on June 19, 2026 Water year 2027 so far: 1.11 ft on October 2, 2026 1953 1989 1983

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. Grey hollow dots (3 years) were measured on a different datum or at a different site, or before the gauge's datum last changed, so they are shown but not compared.

NWS historic crests

DateCrestAbove minor flood stage
May 19, 195326.53 ft13.5 ft
July 2, 198924.70 ft11.7 ft
December 30, 198224.33 ft11.3 ft
February 14, 196623.07 ft10.1 ft
March 14, 201622.88 ft9.9 ft
April 6, 201722.16 ft9.2 ft
October 11, 202021.88 ft8.9 ft
February 16, 195021.54 ft8.5 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

calcasieu-river-near-oberlin.csv (CSV): every reading stored for this gauge since September 11, 2026, 4,044 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.