The monitoring network within this area

Hydrionis holds 1,028 values from 6 gauges within it. Discharge is a property of a gauge and its reach, not of this drainage area, so this page reports the network and its records rather than a single figure.

Gauges

1,028

Values held

1884–2026

Record spans

Gauges within the Lower Kentucky huc8 subbasin

6 monitoring points, positioned as the publisher records them.

Flood peaks, as measured

This gauge's flood record, as measured. Unlike a daily mean it is the discharge at the moment the river was highest, which is the figure flood frequency analysis is built on.

Largest measured flow of each year at KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 2 AT LOCKPORT, KY

The highest instantaneous discharge the publisher recorded in each year — a flood peak as measured, not a daily average of one. 1884–2025.

Show relevant events (1 event)Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.

Published by the gauge's own operator from its sub-daily record; Hydrionis stores the figure rather than recomputing it. A year the gauge did not cover produces no value rather than a low one, and the gaps are stated below the chart. A peak is a property of this gauge and its reach: a larger flood upstream or downstream of it is not in this series.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

Event	Type	Period	Standing	Authority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse	Flood	2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30	Documented record	Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 2 AT LOCKPORT, KY (m³/s)
1884	1,951
1885	1,495
1886	2,135
1887	2,421
1888	949
1890	0
1891	0
1892	1,623
1893	1,339
1894	1,209
1895	1,331
1896	1,416
1897	0
1898	0
1899	0
1900	977
1901	1,727
1902	1,858
1904	1,068
1905	1,430
1906	1,617
1907	2,138
1908	2,189
1909	2,311
1910	1,724
1911	1,478
1912	1,829
1913	2,639
1914	1,396
1915	1,642
1917	2,203
1918	2,243
1919	2,209
1921	906
1923	2,067
1924	2,353
1926	1,940
1927	2,390
1928	2,144
1929	2,067
1930	1,339
1931	1,271
1932	2,206
1933	1,699
1934	1,977
1935	2,257
1936	2,172
1937	3,483
1938	1,263
1939	2,478
1940	1,501
1941	807
1942	1,455
1944	1,614
1945	2,659
1946	2,163
1947	1,492
1948	2,713
1949	2,149
1950	2,588
1951	1,974
1952	2,336
1953	1,767
1954	555
1955	2,633
1956	2,234
1957	2,444
1958	1,872
1959	1,645
1960	1,756
1961	2,328
1962	2,917
1963	2,195
1964	2,860
1965	1,812
1966	1,334
1967	2,161
1968	1,787
1969	937
1970	2,132
1972	2,945
1974	2,396
1975	2,495
1976	1,741
1977	1,625
1978	1,917
1979	1,320
1981	1,444
1982	1,586
1983	1,838
1984	2,645
1985	1,405
1987	1,623
1988	1,150
1989	3,455
1991	2,376
1993	1,719
1994	2,769
1995	2,427
1996	1,682
1997	2,832
1998	1,965
1999	1,557
2000	1,136
2003	2,384
2004	2,532
2005	1,487
2006	1,467
2007	1,116
2008	2,231
2009	1,654
2010	3,002
2011	2,059
2013	1,900
2014	1,880
2015	2,784
2017	1,008
2018	1,608
2019	2,254
2020	1,991
2021	2,798
2022	1,872
2023	1,917
2024	1,365
2025	3,511

About this series

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source	United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to exist	Measured
Period held	1884–2025
Completeness	88.0% of the periods in that span are held. Gaps are drawn as breaks and never interpolated.
Known gaps	16 separate periods inside 1884–2025 hold no value. The longest runs from 2001 to 2002 — 2 years with no reading. They are drawn as breaks in the line and are never interpolated across.
Continuity	The record begins in 1884 and is not continuous from it: 142 years separate the first value from the last, and 88% of the years between them are held. The span is not the record.
Last read from the publisher	2026-10-01
Redistribution	Permitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reuse	Permitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
Methodology	How this was produced

How much of the rain came back out

A discharge in cubic metres per second cannot be compared with anything: the larger number may only mean the larger catchment. Divided by the area draining to the gauge it becomes a depth of water over that land, which answers a question a reader already has — of the rain that fell here, how much came back out as river?

Water leaving the catchment above ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY, as a depth

The year's flow spread over the land draining to this gauge, in millimetres — the same unit rainfall is measured in. 1916–2025.

Show relevant events (1 event)Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.

Computed by Hydrionis from the published annual mean flow and the catchment area the station's own publisher states. It is not a water balance: the difference between rainfall and runoff is not evaporation alone but also change in groundwater storage, water abstracted and taken elsewhere, and water imported by transfer schemes — which is why a catchment can yield more runoff than the rain that fell on it without anything being measured wrongly. A different area figure rescales every value here by the ratio between them.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

Event	Type	Period	Standing	Authority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse	Flood	2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30	Documented record	Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY (mm)
1916	502
1917	523
1940	359
1941	139
1942	625
1943	479
1944	210
1945	630
1946	430
1947	401
1948	736
1949	571
1950	901
1951	777
1952	438
1953	389
1954	129
1955	493
1956	580
1957	596
1958	509
1959	431
1960	627
1961	753
1962	620
1963	343
1964	543
1965	399
1966	495
1967	491
1968	496
1969	320
1970	614
1971	432
1972	790
1973	600
1974	805
1975	832
1976	350
1977	397
1978	774
1979	850
1980	346
1981	301
1982	453
1983	653
1988	368
1989	843
1990	795
1991	692
1992	580
1993	631
1994	706
1995	591
1996	889
1997	800
1998	673
1999	309
2000	393
2001	442
2002	759
2003	785
2004	989
2005	358
2006	587
2007	499
2008	669
2009	705
2010	440
2011	1,005
2012	364
2013	788
2014	581
2015	950
2016	471
2017	559
2018	1,212
2019	887
2020	602
2021	793
2022	540
2023	410
2024	559
2025	1,001

About this series

Source	United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to exist	Derived Computed by Hydrionis
Period held	1916–2025
Completeness	76.4% of the periods in that span are held. Gaps are drawn as breaks and never interpolated.
Known gaps	2 separate periods inside 1916–2025 hold no value. The longest runs from 1918 to 1939 — 22 years with no reading. They are drawn as breaks in the line and are never interpolated across.
Continuity	The record begins in 1916 and is not continuous from it: 110 years separate the first value from the last, and 76% of the years between them are held. The span is not the record.
Inputs last read	2026-10-01 · when the records this was computed from were last read from their publishers
Calculation date	2026-08-24 · when the calculation method was last versioned, not a reading of any publisher
Redistribution	Permitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reuse	Permitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
Methodology	How this was produced

Every gauge Hydrionis holds within this area

Gauges within the Lower Kentucky and what each holds
Gauge	Measures	Values	Record
ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	254	1915–2026
EAGLE CREEK AT GLENCOE, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	254	1915–2026
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 2 AT LOCKPORT, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow	140	1884–2026
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 6 NEAR SALVISA, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow	132	1895–2026
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 4 AT FRANKFORT, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow	130	1895–2026
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 10 NEAR WINCHESTER, KY	catchment area, annual maximum river flow	118	1908–2026

How these gauges were attached to this water

Assigned by the publisher to a numbered basin Every gauge here is assigned to this drainage area by its own publisher, which issues the area an official code — 05100205. A drainage area is not a river: it contains the tributaries as well as the main channel, and a gauge in it may be on any of them.

What each gauge’s link to this water rests on
Gauge	Evidence	Established
ELKHORN CREEK NEAR FRANKFORT, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
EAGLE CREEK AT GLENCOE, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 2 AT LOCKPORT, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 6 NEAR SALVISA, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 4 AT FRANKFORT, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
KENTUCKY RIVER AT LOCK 10 NEAR WINCHESTER, KY	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02

What this record holds

Hydrionis decides which waters get a page, and which of those are offered to search, from what is actually held rather than from how the page reads. Five signals are counted; this record has 4 of them, which makes it a full profile.

Information-gain signals held for this water body
Signal	Held	Counts
Gauges holding a real record	6	yes, 3 or more
Years spanned	143	yes, 20 or more
Values held	1,028	yes, 1000 or more
Distinct measurements	4	yes, 2 or more
Publishers measuring it	1	no
Official identifiers	1	recorded, not counted

Use this data

Machine-readable JSON /api/v1/observations/by-subject/gauge-usgs-03289500.json
How to cite this, and who you must credit
How these figures were produced
Request this at a different scale, format or geography

No bulk download is offered here, which is a licence position rather than a product one: at least one contributing publisher does not permit redistribution. The values can be read on the page, cited, and pointed to at source.

Attribution and citation

Suggested citation for Hydrionis

Hydrionis (2026), Lower Kentucky gauge records, accessed 2026-10-05, hydrionis.com/waters/united-states-lower-kentucky/

Cite Hydrionis where you rely on values Hydrionis computed, on the method that produced them, or on the compilation itself. The underlying measurements remain the publishers’ and their attribution requirements apply to you directly.

Recommended, not required. Hydrionis does not claim rights over unmodified public data it relayed, and doing arithmetic on somebody else’s measurements does not make them Hydrionis’s. Cite the version and the access date: the Lower Kentucky gauge records changes as publishers release and as methods are revised, and a citation without both cannot be checked later. Full guidance is on cite and reuse.

None of the contributing licences requires attribution. Crediting the publishers is still good practice and they are listed above.

Where these figures come from

MeasuredHigh confidence2025-04-04

Source: USGS — National Water Information System, USGS site 03289500, annual peak streamflow. Licence: Open.

Method: The instantaneous maximum discharge of each water year as published by USGS, dated to the day it occurred. One value per October-to-September water year; where the publisher lists both a systematic and a historic peak for a year, the larger is the annual maximum. Values the publisher marks as maximum daily averages are not held here, because they are not instantaneous peaks. Values marked as bounded rather than measured are held as censored observations carrying the bound. Cubic feet per second are converted to cubic metres per second and the publisher unit is recorded alongside.

Rating curves are extrapolated at extreme discharges, so the largest values in a peak series carry the largest measurement uncertainty. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System, a work of the United States government and therefore in the public domain.

Retrieved 1 October 2026.