Gulf Coast Gauges

Choctawhatchee River near Bruce water level

USGS gauge 02366500 · Walton County · Pensacola and the Emerald Coast · NWS gauge BRUF1

9.02 ft

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

Below NWS minor flood stage
5.0 ft
NWS action stage
11.0 ft
NWS minor flood stage
14.0 ft
NWS moderate flood stage
17.0 ft
NWS major flood stage
20.0 ft
Highest since 1986 (USGS)
26.76 ft (July 11, 1994)
Usual range
4.82 to 12.13 ft

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

No National Weather Service alert covering Walton County 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

4.8 9.1 13.4 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

4.7 9.1 13.4 2026-09-11 – 2026-10-23 · bars are daily low to high

Annual peaks since 1931

In 38 complete water years of comparable USGS records (since 1986), the highest peak was 26.76 ft on July 11, 1994. So far in water year 2027 (since October 1) the highest reading is 13.43 ft on October 17, 2026, higher than the annual peak in 7 of 38 years.

6 12 17 23 28 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 major 20 ft moderate 17 ft minor 14 ft action 11 ft Water year 1931: 12.25 ft on November 22, 1930 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1932: 10.30 ft on January 19, 1932 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1933: 12.40 ft on April 18, 1933 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1934: 10.58 ft on March 11, 1934 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1935: 8.23 ft on March 16, 1935 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1936: 13.96 ft on January 10, 1936 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1937: 16.04 ft on September 6, 1937 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1938: 11.78 ft on March 24, 1938 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1939: 16.68 ft on August 20, 1939 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1940: 12.07 ft on February 23, 1940 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1941: 7.78 ft on March 27, 1941 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1942: 12.45 ft on January 6, 1942 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1943: 12.13 ft on January 27, 1943 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1944: 12.90 ft on March 30, 1944 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1945: 8.30 ft on May 5, 1945 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1946: 13.88 ft on August 11, 1946 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1947: 14.79 ft on March 12, 1947 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1948: 15.22 ft on April 4, 1948 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1949: 12.02 ft on December 4, 1948 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1950: 12.15 ft on September 5, 1950 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1951: 8.93 ft on April 5, 1951 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1952: 10.16 ft on February 22, 1952 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1953: 10.79 ft on May 11, 1953 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1954: 13.82 ft on December 12, 1953 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1955: 10.81 ft on April 21, 1955 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1956: 8.61 ft on March 19, 1956 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1957: 12.04 ft on April 12, 1957 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1958: 10.09 ft on March 15, 1958 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1959: 10.99 ft on March 11, 1959 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1960: 16.00 ft on April 9, 1960 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1961: 13.05 ft on April 20, 1961 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1962: 12.87 ft on April 5, 1962 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1963: 10.64 ft on January 27, 1963 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1964: 13.11 ft on May 2, 1964 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1965: 12.96 ft on December 30, 1964 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1966: 13.09 ft on March 7, 1966 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1967: 11.71 ft on January 9, 1967 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1968: 9.39 ft on December 17, 1967 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1969: 10.10 ft on May 25, 1969 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1970: 12.06 ft on April 6, 1970 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1971: 11.22 ft on April 2, 1971 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1972: 9.02 ft on March 11, 1972 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1973: 13.05 ft on April 7, 1973 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1974: 12.41 ft on February 12, 1974 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1975: 17.54 ft on April 15, 1975 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1976: 12.00 ft on October 24, 1975 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1977: 12.15 ft on December 5, 1976 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1978: 15.80 ft on January 31, 1978 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1979: 14.43 ft on March 1, 1979 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1980: 13.01 ft on March 18, 1980 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1981: 11.88 ft on February 17, 1981 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1982: 12.31 ft on February 8, 1982 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1983: 11.12 ft on February 8, 1983 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1985: 15.00 ft on February 13, 1985 (different datum or site: not compared) Water year 1986: 16.07 ft on February 12, 1986 Water year 1987: 13.48 ft on March 6, 1987 Water year 1988: 15.35 ft on March 10, 1988 Water year 1989: 17.65 ft on June 14, 1989 Water year 1990: 22.88 ft on March 23, 1990 Water year 1992: 14.46 ft on February 12, 1992 Water year 1993: 16.60 ft on December 1, 1992 Water year 1994: 26.76 ft on July 11, 1994 Water year 1995: 16.25 ft on February 17, 1995 Water year 1996: 15.28 ft on April 5, 1996 Water year 1997: 14.48 ft on February 21, 1997 Water year 1998: 22.61 ft on March 13, 1998 Water year 2000: 9.50 ft on March 27, 2000 Water year 2001: 15.56 ft on March 19, 2001 Water year 2002: 12.99 ft on April 15, 2002 Water year 2003: 15.22 ft on April 14, 2003 Water year 2004: 14.35 ft on September 23, 2004 Water year 2005: 18.87 ft on April 4, 2005 Water year 2006: 12.78 ft on January 8, 2006 Water year 2007: 11.57 ft on April 23, 2007 Water year 2008: 16.14 ft on February 26, 2008 Water year 2009: 20.52 ft on April 2, 2009 Water year 2010: 19.09 ft on December 21, 2009 Water year 2011: 10.73 ft on March 17, 2011 Water year 2012: 13.14 ft on September 10, 2012 Water year 2013: 18.64 ft on February 28, 2013 Water year 2014: 18.27 ft on April 22, 2014 Water year 2015: 14.77 ft on April 24, 2015 Water year 2016: 19.97 ft on January 1, 2016 Water year 2017: 17.65 ft on January 7, 2017 Water year 2018: 16.75 ft on February 16, 2018 Water year 2019: 15.87 ft on December 6, 2018 Water year 2020: 19.93 ft on September 20, 2020 Water year 2021: 14.63 ft on April 29, 2021 Water year 2022: 14.49 ft on March 24, 2022 Water year 2024: 14.99 ft on March 15, 2024 Water year 2025: 11.19 ft on October 4, 2024 Water year 2026: 14.90 ft on June 25, 2026 Water year 2027 so far: 13.43 ft on October 17, 2026 1994

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 (54 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
July 11, 199426.76 ft12.8 ft
March 23, 199022.88 ft8.9 ft
March 13, 199822.61 ft8.6 ft
April 15, 197521.48 ft7.5 ft
August 20, 193920.62 ft6.6 ft
April 2, 200920.52 ft6.5 ft
September 6, 193719.98 ft6.0 ft
April 9, 196019.94 ft5.9 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

choctawhatchee-river-near-bruce.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.