Streamflow

Columbia basin streamflow

Daily mean discharge across 2 gauges

Data through Aug 26, 2026 · source last checked Aug 27, 2026 · page revised Aug 27, 2026

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About this data
Source
US Geological Survey (USGS)
Series
Daily mean streamflow (discharge)
Geography
Columbia
Unit
cfs
Calculation
Daily mean
Last observation
Aug 26, 2026
Update frequency
Daily

2 basin-representative gauges tracked.

The Columbia River carried 149,000 cfs at The Dalles and 80,300 cfs at the International Boundary on Aug 26.

The numbers
GaugeDischargeAs of
Columbia River at The Dalles149,000 cfsAug 26, 2026
Columbia River at International Boundary80,300 cfsAug 26, 2026

Previous weeks

Week of Aug 19, 2026

The Columbia River at International Boundary read 82,900 cfs on Aug 19. The Columbia River at The Dalles read 107,000 cfs on Aug 18.

An earlier week

Columbia River carried 87,800 cfs at the International Boundary and 115,000 cfs at The Dalles on Aug 12.

Week of Aug 13, 2026

The Columbia River ran at 88,600 cfs at the International Boundary and 125,000 cfs at The Dalles as of August 9.

About Columbia basin

The Columbia drains roughly 258,000 square miles across seven US states and British Columbia, and carries more water to the Pacific than any other river in North America. This page lines up its two mainstem index gages: the International Boundary station, which measures Canadian runoff arriving under the Columbia River Treaty, and The Dalles, which measures nearly the whole basin below the Snake confluence.

The two answer different questions. The boundary gage is a read on Canadian storage operations, which supply a disproportionate share of the river's summer flow. The Dalles is the basin total and the figure regional runoff forecasts are quoted in. When the boundary line holds up while The Dalles falls, the shortfall is in the US interior, the Snake and the Columbia's American tributaries; when both fall together, it is a basin-wide water year.