High Water June

Been a big month on the water and as we enter July, let’s just take a moment to give a water level shout out. Anecdotally, if you spent time on the river last year and were out some this June, you know that the water was higher. Stands to reason with all of the rain we had. But, thanks to the USGS, we have data for that.  I’m not going to go wild looking at the data, but no harm having some info on the topic. 

Here’s a link for the June 2024 water levels as found on the USGS Water Data website. Aside from a 24 hour spike to 4.3 feet as measured at the Lancaster NOAA water gauge (Pleasure Road and 23), the river pretty much sat around 3.4 feet or so. It even approached the 3 foot mark later in the month before a slight rebound. Low and slow. Lower water levels invariably mean the lack of precipitation and because the river is not full of runoff silt, the water is usually clear. 

Heavy rain, however, doesn’t necessarily translate to higher river levels. We have had prolonged torrential rainfall here at the house and only realized a slight rise in the river. On the other hand, heavy rains upstream that don’t touch Lancaster City can yield a change in levels. 

Without doubt, we had a lot of rain in June and the river reflected that. According to the USGS we spent most of June with levels above 4 feet and there were five spikes above 5 feet. And that is saying nothing about the water event that occurred during the first days of July where the river hit the “minor” flood stage. (See later post.)

While rain and higher levels mean that the river is far from clear, the one thing it is is fast. It’s awesome going out when the levels are high not only for the different perspective one gets sitting higher in the channel, but for those who like to speed things up, it’s just fun to be on a faster river. 

While I love to take my time down the river, a 1.3 mile rip in 12 minutes is something I can get into. And have.

June 19, 2025 - 6.9 feet of river