Sadly the Army Corps seems to change these every year. I haven't figured out why, who can predict what a web page developer will think is cool. It changed in April of 2004 and again sometime late in 2007. I tried to access the pages in Oct 2009 and found they had changed yet again. Due to a post and email from Alan Darling I think I have it working again. See below for current Top Level and direct access URLs.
Start at the top level URL
for Army Corps flood control data sites of the Connecticut River Shed.
Near the top is a list of Topics, putting the mouse on the the
tab to the far left, 'Hydro Data', should give you a drop down list.
Select 'Real Time Data Map', the first entry in the list.
The DAMS of interest for
the upper sections of Ash and Otter brook are the SMD (Surry Mountain Dam)
and OBD (Otter Brook Dam) in the VT region.
With a little fumbling around I figured out the direct links below, but it might change again. If it does change again try going back to the top level.
My correlation is based on "Real Time Tabular Data" for the dam of interest. This has a column for
'inflow' which is the data of interest.
This seems to be a good predictor of the hand painted gage levels
although I believe its derived
from the outflow and rate of change in pond level.
For the Upper Ash, go to
SMD
Note there is now also an on-line gage station available on the upper Ash
near Gilsum, GIL
icon on the image map. The old gage has been given
new life, at least temporarily. The CFS it reports seems slightly lower than
the SMD inflow which my correlations are based on, but time will tell and
USGS will probably keep adjusting it as its just provisional now. Of interest
the real time data also shows water temperature!
For the Upper Otter, go to
OBD
After the previous build up, I currently only have a few
correlation points. All the Otter brook observations
are consistent. For the Ash the high CFS and the this years
data for 500 CFS and below are consistent. However I went to
the Ash on 3/28/02 thinking it would be above 4.5 based on my
(currently suspect) 3/13/00 observation and was disappointed.
This may just mean the inflow estimate isn't that accurate.
I currently think the Ash is questionable below 500 cfs.
WARNING as of 8/30/11 after tropical storm Irene this all
seems to have changed. As of this date the CFS inflow at SMD
is 40% higher than the USGS gage that Gilsum reports. I did the upper
Ash at 2pm based on USGS data saying it was 5.8' but it was
higher than I've ever been on it, and I've done it several times
in the past at 6.8'. I didn't get all the data till I got home
around 8:30 pm as shown below. At 2pm a visual reading of the stage
height at the gage station agreed with the 5.8' reported on the
internet, but there is now a big consistent difference between the SMD
cfs info and the USGS cfs report from the Gilsum gage.
After the map is displayed, click on VT (top lefthand region of map) to select
it. Allow the new detailed map to display. Now you can click on any of
the icons on this map to get the real time data for that location.
Date time SMD inflow USGS Gilsum gage cfs
08/30/11 8:30pm 1162 824
09/01/11 8:30am 420 298
09/02/11 8:30am 210 149
The data below was fairly consistent from 2002 through 2010 and
is based on SMD inflow data
Date time inflow (CFS) observed gage
Gilsum Gorge
09/18/99 1pm 1470 7.5 Hope
09/18/99 7pm 1190 6.8 willy - pucker
04/02/02 1pm 1120 6.8 willy
04/14/04 noon 1055 6.0 willy comfortable in Responce
04/16/03 noon 870 6.0 willy - little big for rpm (swim!)
04/09/05 ~noon 840 ~6.0 willy
09/19/99 12pm 815 6.0 tom
04/03/02 4pm 780 5.7 willy - nice, even with swim!
04/19/03 2pm 480 5.0 willy - nice in rpm
04/06/02 2pm 440 4.75 Hope - still fun
04/07/02 2pm 330 4.3
03/28/02 1pm 321 4.0 Pat - too low
03/08/02 11am 180 3.8 Pat - too low
older suspect Ash data below:
03/12/00 2pm 475 5.5 willy - pleasant
03/13/00 3pm 350 5.0 willy
10/06/99 3pm 247 4.5 Willy - very low
09/26/99 12pm 120 4.2 Willy - too low
Otter brook bridge (Sullivan)
04/14/04 8am 765 2.75 willy pushy, even in Responce
03/31/03 2pm 650 2.5 willy - too big for me in rpm, we swim
09/18/99 7pm 415 2.0 willy - nice
04/02/02 1pm 410 2.0 willy - " , watch one bigger drop
04/17/03 4pm 370 2.0 willy - just drove by
08/30/11 1pm 440 1.8 will & Ed - nice
04/09/05 3pm 350 1.75 willy
04/03/02 4pm 280 1.6~ willy
09/19/99 12pm 280 1.5 tom
03/12/00 2pm 240 1.25 willy - didn't attempt
03/13/00 3pm 170 1.0 willy - too low
03/28/02 1pm 144 0.75 willy - " "
As a point of interest, as of Sept 2011 the
AWA correlation
for upper Otter Brook incorrectly uses the SMD outflow rather than the
inflow data and therefore is not a good predictor of the river level.
Tables say time EST/EDT. I interpollated inflow CFS above to time of observation. It bounces around a bit, don't put too much faith in an individual reading! If you get out there, send me or the mvp-list the date, time, and observed gage level and I will add it to this list.
My personal experience is the two rivers above begin to get too low at 5.0 for Upper Ash and 1.5 for Upper Otter. An remember I LIKE rock picking, your min may be higher.
The rivers and gages below probably can be (or have been) correlated. The AWWA pages for NH uses the Ellis as a virtual gage for the Upper Saco. Its apparently a better predictor than the N. Conway gage I've used. My personal records are below with shortcuts to the gages. I find that using the URL directly per below sometimes works when you can't get to the NH-VT river site! My comments on river levels should be combined with the knowledge than I'm a class 3 boater, where I think its pleasant a better boater will think its too low. Where I begin to get some pucker factor, a better boater will just be starting to have some fun.
Date Inet gage observed gage
CFS Stage Rt 31 Power
bridge house
03/03/00 ~ 950 - 1.5 - Wyman
03/18/00 1220 5.1 1.6 1.2 Willy - Pleasant
04/13/08 1300 - - 1.5 Willy
03/01/00 1200 - - ~ 1.7 Moodus
03/17/00 1400 5.4 1.95 Moodus
08/30/11 1,840 - - ~2.0 Skip
- 2280 - 2.0 - George
Note there is also now a reporting gage at Milford which is probably
a better predictor, but I don't have records for it.
Date Inet gage observed bridge gage
CFS Stage
04/17/99 - 4.7 1.3 Even Willy could do it!
03/29/02 410 5.2 1.75 Will - Contoocook at 7.5'
04/22/03 410 5.45 2.2 Will
04/21/03 550 5.6 2.5 Skip
03/15/00 580 5.6 2.25 Will - Contoocook at 8.5'
03/22/00 600 5.65 2.4 Will
04/06/02 650 5.75 2.5 Will - Contoocook at 8.0'
03/19/00 700 5.9 2.5+ David - Contoocook at 9.1'
04/15/03 930 6.3 3.25 Will
03/17/00 1040 6.5 3.0 Will - Contoocook at 9.2'
03/29/00 1600 7.2 4.0 Will - Contoocook at 9.6'
Date Inet gage
CFS Stage
12/97 - 2.5 Tim's cor tbl - min boatable level
10/97 - 3.2 Tim's cor tbl - low
05/97 - 4.0 Will
04/10/99 1000 4.25 Art - medium
Date Inet gage observed Comment
CFS Stage bridge gage
fall/99 350 3.8 - David - little scratchy but..
4/96 - 4.1 0.0 Tim's cor tbl - very low
4/96 - 4.3 0.4 Tim's cor tbl - low
4/05/02 470 4.2 - Will - I like this "low" level
3/27/00 560 4.5 0.25 Will - fun, but pushing my limits
4/15/03 550 4.5 0.7 Will & rpm are comfortable but working hard
4/02/02 700 4.8 1.0 Will - really pushing my limits
3/21/00 950 5.4 0.90 Will - just looked, seemed doable
3/29/00 1250 6.0 - Will - water in trees along 104
Date Inet gage observed bridge gage
CFS Stage
06/97 - 2.6 0.6 will still boatable & fun!
05/21/99 430 2.0 0.8 will nice for me
04/09/99 575 2.3 ~ 0.6 will just looked at it
04/17/03 550 7.0 0.9 will, took out at Loon, nice
04/21/03 600 7.1 1.0 Willy likes it, full run, beautiful day.
05/97 - 3.5 ~ 1.3 will some pucker
05/11/99 PM - 2.8 1.4 will
" noon 1100 3.0 1.5 will
" AM - 3.2 1.8 will to big for me
04/94 2100 3.7 1.8 tim's cor tbl
04/94 - 4.3 2.3 tim's cor tbl
observed gage
Date Inet gage Swift Bartlett
CFS Stage Gorge Bridge
04/10/99 3300 5.7 1.4 1.0