Streamflow
Above normalRio Grande at Otowi Bridge streamflow
Daily mean discharge, Rio Grande basin, New Mexico
Data through Sep 30, 2026 · source last checked Oct 1, 2026 · page revised Oct 1, 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
- Sep 30, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
Now 1,440 cfs, 313% above the 5-yr median.
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge discharged 1,440 cfs, up 93% on the week and 313% above the 5-year median. The flow jumped 388% month-over-month from 295 cfs.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | 1,440 cfs | 746 cfs | +93.0% |
| Month over month | 1,440 cfs | 295 cfs | +388.1% |
| Year over year | 1,440 cfs | 329 cfs | +337.7% |
| vs 5-yr median | 1,440 cfs | 349 cfs | +312.6% |
| Reading | Discharge |
|---|---|
| Lowest on record for this week | 210 cfs |
| Median for this week | 349 cfs |
| Highest on record for this week | 1,540 cfs |
Previous weeks
Week of Sep 23, 2026
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge ran at 746 cfs, up 189% on the week from 258 cfs. The gauge is 67% above its 5-year median. Flows rose 268% month over month and 114% year over year.
Week of Sep 15, 2026
Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge ran 340 cfs, up 81.8% on the week and 36.5% from a month ago. The gauge is 6% below the 5-year median, down 6.3% year over year.
Week of Sep 2, 2026
Rio Grande flow at Otowi Bridge reached 590 cfs, up 233% on the week and 39% above the 5-year median. Year over year, discharge is up 50%.
Week of Aug 26, 2026
Discharge fell to 177 cfs, down 30.9% on the week. The gauge runs 78% below the 5-year median of 803 cfs. Year-over-year, flow has dropped 57.5%.
About Rio Grande at Otowi Bridge
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.