gage height, Oct 23, 2026 at 2:30 PM CDT · 3 hours ago
Below NWS minor flood stage
10.9 ft
NWS action stage
18.0 ft
NWS minor flood stage
20.0 ft
NWS moderate flood stage
25.0 ft
NWS major flood stage
28.0 ft
Highest since 1999 (USGS)
31.20 ft (March 12, 2016)
Usual range
9.09 to 9.45 ft
USGS marks recent readings as provisional: they can be revised after review.
No National Weather Service alert covering St. Tammany 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
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 -0.44 ft NAVD88. It is not a water depth and not an elevation: add -0.44 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
Annual peaks since 1951
In 28 complete water years of comparable USGS records (since 1999), the highest peak was 31.20 ft on March 12, 2016. So far in water year 2027 (since October 1) the highest reading is 9.60 ft on October 6, 2026.
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 (16 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
Date
Crest
Above minor flood stage
February 3, 1988
32.00 ft
12.0 ft
February 28, 1987
31.25 ft
11.2 ft
March 12, 2016
31.20 ft
11.2 ft
August 13, 2016
30.02 ft
10.0 ft
May 3, 1953
29.86 ft
9.9 ft
January 21, 1993
28.70 ft
8.7 ft
September 1, 2021
27.95 ft
7.9 ft
December 29, 2018
27.58 ft
7.6 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
tchefuncte-river-near-covington.csv (CSV): every reading stored for this gauge since September 11, 2026, 4,047 rows, with time in UTC and Central, gage height in feet, and the USGS approval status.
