River Height Reading

[LeftRightShoot]

Gday...

Dumb question... I have never really considered river height data on my walks before (i know... i know...) My question is: what does the river height data reading mean? ie if the river is at 0.58, does that mean its 0.58m deep or 0.58m above normal?

The BOM site was going into waaay too much detail but seemed to skip this crucial item. (unless i am blind)

Many thanks.

c.

[climberman]

It means it's 0.58m at the gauging station. Typically you get used to what a level at the gauging station means for the section of river you are interested in.

[LeftRightShoot]

got that... unclear as to whether it is 0.58 *deep* or 0.58 *above normal* thats all.

if the water is normally 1m deep that would make quite a difference!

ta

c.

It means it's 0.58m at the gauging station. Typically you get used to what a level at the gauging station means for the section of river you are interested in.

[flyfisher]

climberman wrote:
It means it's 0.58m at the gauging station. Typically you get used to what a level at the gauging station means for the section of river you are interested in.

Climberman is spot on with his interpretation, you need to know (by looking at the guage and looking at the river level so you can relate the amount of water to what the guage is reading. You can then guestimate how the river looks if the level is up or down by a hundred mm or two. You can't get any idea if you haven't taken note of the level and the reading on previous visits.
There is also a site which gives the water flow in m/l/day which is a more accurate way to guage flows, especially smallish ones.
ff

[sthughes]

Yes the river height readings mean absolutley nothing unless you know what is normal, silly system really but others are more difficult to gauge i guess.

[LeftRightShoot]

ta. I thought this was a dumb question.

Thanks all, Apologies Climberman.

[climberman]

ta. I thought this was a dumb question.

Thanks all, Apologies Climberman.

Mate, you should see the questions I ask ! No worries at all. It just takes a while to get familiar with a new river's heights.

[north-north-west]

It's all relative, anyway. Up to a point*, flow is more critical than height when considering the risks of a crossing.

(*for me, that point is about 4'6" above the bottom)