Streamflow
Reading the river in cubic feet per second.
The river, in numbers
Streamflow is the basin's heartbeat — cubic feet per second past a fixed point, measured day and night. Everything downstream is downstream of this number.
How it's read
stage water height, from a stilling well rating stage → flow, from a surveyed curve baseflow what the aquifer keeps giving peak the instant the flood arrives
Why it matters
Drought declarations, flood warnings, and water rights all hang on a cfs reading. Small error, big consequences.