Streamflow
Above normalRio Grande at Otowi Bridge streamflow
Daily mean discharge, Rio Grande basin, New Mexico
Data through Oct 28, 2026 · source last checked Oct 30, 2026 · page revised Oct 29, 2026
Cite
- Discharge
About this data
- Source
- US Geological Survey (USGS)
- Series
- Daily mean streamflow (discharge)
- Geography
- Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge
- Unit
- cfs
- Calculation
- Daily mean
- Last observation
- Oct 28, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 4,270 cfs, 749% above the 5-yr median.
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge reached 4,270 cfs, 749% above the 5-year median. Discharge jumped +863.9% on the week. Month-over-month flow is up +1,425.0%.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 4,270 cfs | 443 cfs | +863.9% |
| Month over month | 4,270 cfs | 280 cfs | +1,425.0% |
| Year over year | 4,270 cfs | 503 cfs | +748.9% |
| vs 5-yr median | 4,270 cfs | 503 cfs | +748.9% |
| Reading | Discharge |
|---|---|
| Lowest on record for this week | 308 cfs |
| Median for this week | 503 cfs |
| Highest on record for this week | 1,570 cfs |
Previous weeks
An earlier week
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge reached 3,220 cfs, up 537.6% from the prior week. The discharge is 495% above the 5-year median.
An earlier week
Rio Grande discharge at Otowi Bridge read 2,560 cfs, 338% above the 5-year median. Flow up 508.1% on the week.
Week of Oct 25, 2026
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge rose to 1,650 cfs, up 316.7% week over week. The gauge sits 140% above its 5-year median. Month over month it gained 151.1%.
An earlier week
Rio Grande discharge at Otowi Bridge rose to 1,540 cfs, running 121% above the 5-year median. The gauge surged 259.8% on the week, jumping from 428 cfs. Year-over-year flow climbed 102.4%.
About Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge
The Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge ran 4,270 cfs on Oct 28, 2026: 4,270 cubic feet of water passing the gauge every second (what cfs means), or about 8,470 acre-feet a day. In gallons, that is about 1,916,508 gallons per minute (convert cfs to gpm). That is about 8.5 times the 5-year median of 503 cfs for the date, and above the highest reading for this week of the year in the 5-year record (1,570 cfs). A month earlier it ran 280 cfs on Sep 28, 2026, so the river has risen 1,425% since then. Below Otowi Bridge the river passes Cochiti Dam and the Middle Rio Grande valley on its way to Elephant Butte Reservoir, the main storage of the Rio Grande Project in southern New Mexico.
USGS gage 08313000 measures the Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge in northern New Mexico, below the Rio Chama confluence and above Cochiti Dam. It is the accounting gage for the Rio Grande Compact: New Mexico's delivery obligation to Texas is calculated from the flow recorded here, which makes it one of the most legally consequential streamflow stations in the country.
Above it are the San Juan-Chama transbasin diversion, which imports Colorado River water into the Rio Grande system, and El Vado and Abiquiu reservoirs on the Chama. A normal year peaks with snowmelt from the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains in May, then falls through a low summer punctuated by monsoon storm pulses in July and August. A weak spring peak here has immediate legal consequences, because a shortfall accrues as compact debt that New Mexico has to repay from storage in a later year.