What are the Flood Stage Lines?

During a storm, the creek will rise to a “peak” and then fall. The “peak flow” is the highest flow (and normally also the highest level or stage) the creek water rises to during the storm. Sometimes we say the creek will “crest” or has “crested”; same thing as “peak”.

The Flood Stage Lines on the stream stage plots are the stages (height) at which we can anticipate flooding in the areas near that stream gauge. The Flood Stage Lines on most of the plots are labeled "Draft" or "Sample" since we are still in process of performing the research and engineering calculations to determine those stages.

“Stage” is usually in feet and can be the elevation from sea level (like the Marsh Ck Reservoir) or an arbitrary elevation not relative to sea level or bottom of the creek.