St. Francis River — Historical Levels at Roselle

23 years of the Corps gauge record (2003–2025) at 15-minute resolution: how often the Saint runs, how long it holds, and every rise above the 3-foot floor.

What this page is

The decision gauge for the St. Francis whitewater — Hwy 72 to Millstream Gardens, and Millstream Gardens through Tiemann Shut-Ins at Silver Mines — is the Corps of Engineers gauge at Roselle (NWPS ROZM7, USACE St. Louis District), read in feet of stage. The paddling community’s bands are 3.0 ft (the runnable floor — below it the shut-ins are dry rocks), 4.0 ft (about Class III) and 6.0 ft (big water, the river going over the D bridge at Silver Mines). The D-bridge paddler gauge reads (Roselle − 3) × 15 inches below 6 ft; above 6 ft the water is (Roselle − 6) × 1.25 feet over the bridge deck.

Everything below is counted from the Corps 15-minute record for 2003–2025. The Corps gauge has reported since 1990, but only hourly and with long holes until it went to a steady 15-minute step in the spring of 2002 — 2003 is the first complete 15-minute year. On a river that can rise a foot in an hour, hourly readings miss crests, so the earlier era is left out rather than mixed in. There is no datum jump anywhere in the record: the annual median has sat between 2.3 and 3.2 ft every year since 1990.

A day counts toward a level if any reading that day reached it.
A rise is one trip above 3.0 ft; it ends only when the gauge has stayed below 3.0 ft for six straight hours — so a wet spring where the river never drops back can count as one very long rise.
This is history, not a forecast. Nothing here predicts anything; it tells you what the river has actually done.

How Often the Saint Runs

Days per year and share of the clock at each level, 2003–2025. Months with big holes in the record are left out of their month’s average rather than counted as dry.

Level	Days / year	% of the time
≥ 3.0 ft — runnable	158	39.3%
≥ 4.0 ft — Class III	57	11.3%
≥ 6.0 ft — big water / over the bridge	21	2.9%

By month — days per year, averaged across the record. The Saint is a cool-season river: it is up most of the time from December through May and rare from July to October.

≥ 3.0 ft runnable≥ 4.0 ft Class III≥ 6.0 ft big water

Month	≥3 ft d/yr	≥3 ft % of days	≥4 ft d/yr	≥4 ft % of days	≥6 ft d/yr	≥6 ft % of days
Jan	19.7	64%	6.3	20%	2.1	7%
Feb	19.1	68%	6.7	24%	2.3	8%
Mar	25.3	82%	9.9	32%	3.4	11%
Apr	25.5	85%	9.5	32%	3.5	12%
May	22.5	73%	9.3	30%	3.6	12%
Jun	8.0	27%	2.8	9%	1.0	3%
Jul	5.2	17%	1.5	5%	0.4	1%
Aug	3.6	12%	1.4	4%	0.6	2%
Sep	2.1	7%	0.7	2%	0.1	0%
Oct	3.3	11%	1.2	4%	0.5	2%
Nov	9.4	32%	3.3	11%	1.6	5%
Dec	14.5	47%	4.5	14%	1.5	5%

This Date in History

For every calendar day: the share of the 23 years in which the Roselle gauge reached 3.0 ft at some point within ±3 days of that date. Darker means more often runnable — hover or tap a cell for the number.

Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Runnable	77%	80%	90%	96%	84%	50%	40%	28%	22%	22%	49%	62%

Apr is the safest bet — in about 96% of years the Saint was up within three days of a given Apr date. Sep is the thinnest at roughly 22%.

How Long a Rise Lasts

322 separate rises above 3.0 ft in 23 years (about 14.7 a year). Median window above the floor: 74 hours, with a median 10 h from crossing 3 ft to the crest and 56 h back down. That average hides two very different rivers — a summer thunderstorm pop that is gone inside a day, and a winter–spring wet spell that simply never drops back.

Window above 3 ft	Rises	Share	Per year
under 6 h	17	5.3%	0.8
6–12 h	17	5.3%	0.8
12–24 h	53	16.5%	2.5
1–2 days	50	15.5%	2.4
2–4 days	43	13.4%	1.9
over 4 days	142	44.1%	6.5

Cool season (Nov–Apr): about 6.5 rises a year, median crest 5.2 ft, median window 218 h (9 days); 61% reach 4 ft and 44% reach 6 ft.
Warm season (May–Oct): about 8.2 rises a year, median crest 4.2 ft, median window 38 h; 54% reach 4 ft and 22% reach 6 ft. Warm-season rises peak fast — median 4 h from the floor to the crest against 17 h in the cool season — and fall just as fast.

The 25 Biggest Rises

Ranked by crest stage at Roselle. “D-bridge” is what the paddler gauge at Silver Mines would have read at the crest. Mill Creek is the USGS gauge a few miles below the take-out; a dash means that gauge had a hole across the crest.

Crest date	Crest (ft)	D-bridge	Hrs ≥3 ft	Hrs ≥6 ft	Mill Creek peak (cfs)
2025-04-05	21.26	19.1 ft over the bridge	301	96	48,900
2017-04-30	21.02	18.8 ft over the bridge	752	166	69,300
2024-11-04	19.52	16.9 ft over the bridge	288	54	40,600
2003-11-18	18.58	15.7 ft over the bridge	404	43	33,500
2008-04-10	18.52	15.7 ft over the bridge	2179	270	50,500
2011-04-25	18.22	15.3 ft over the bridge	2645	348	48,600
2015-12-28	17.87	14.8 ft over the bridge	895	111	43,900
2020-01-11	17.31	14.1 ft over the bridge	2144	186	39,500
2009-10-30	16.73	13.4 ft over the bridge	471	74	38,300
2023-03-24	16.21	12.8 ft over the bridge	619	50	32,500
2022-02-17	16.15	12.7 ft over the bridge	1031	83	35,500
2018-02-24	14.81	11.0 ft over the bridge	568	114	25,000
2018-04-14	14.21	10.3 ft over the bridge	1302	163	23,500
2021-03-12	14.12	10.1 ft over the bridge	627	122	23,100
2016-08-15	13.98	10.0 ft over the bridge	219	45	23,500
2015-06-19	13.97	10.0 ft over the bridge	874	140	22,300
2023-03-03	13.18	9.0 ft over the bridge	1343	88	21,500
2009-12-24	12.94	8.7 ft over the bridge	720	39	—
2016-05-12	12.87	8.6 ft over the bridge	785	114	19,500
2022-03-30	12.37	8.0 ft over the bridge	1386	138	18,200
2009-05-09	12.23	7.8 ft over the bridge	1647	176	14,700
2005-01-13	11.94	7.4 ft over the bridge	568	81	18,600
2023-08-03	11.86	7.3 ft over the bridge	165	65	15,900
2021-12-18	11.64	7.1 ft over the bridge	231	30	20,500
2019-05-22	11.55	6.9 ft over the bridge	4010	475	15,000

Longest runnable windows on record:

Started	Crest (ft)	Hrs ≥3 ft	Days ≥3 ft	Hrs ≥4 ft	Mill Creek peak (cfs)
2018-12-14	11.55	4010	167	1657	15,000
2011-02-13	18.22	2645	110	1008	48,600
2008-02-05	18.52	2179	91	950	50,500
2020-01-10	17.31	2144	89	767	39,500
2009-03-24	12.23	1647	69	733	14,700
2014-03-07	7.35	1480	62	388	6,350
2003-02-14	9.12	1450	60	291	9,190
2022-03-18	12.37	1386	58	536	18,200
2023-01-18	13.18	1343	56	324	21,500
2015-03-03	10.70	1322	55	571	11,600

Records

Across the 23-year 15-minute record, 2003–2025.

Highest crest

21.26 ft

2025-04-05 · 19.1 ft over the bridge

Longest runnable window

167 days

from 2018-12-14 · crest 11.55 ft

Driest year

2017

105 days at or above 3 ft

Wettest year

2015

227 days at or above 3 ft

Year by Year

Days observed at or above each level, and the number of separate rises. Years marked † have holes in the Corps record, so their counts are floors, not totals.

Year	≥3.0 ft	≥4.0 ft	≥6.0 ft	Rises	Record complete
2003	209	65	23	18	100%
2004	183	54	24	21	100%
2005	118	31	10	14	100%
2006	151	45	12	13	100%
2007	137	45	15	7	100%
2008	134	69	25	9	100%
2009	189	81	26	14	100%
2010	141	40	9	13	100%
2011	165	62	25	13	100%
2012 †	127	16	4	8	86%
2013 †	111	44	18	7	78%
2014 †	150	40	8	13	94%
2015	227	90	43	19	100%
2016	173	45	15	11	100%
2017	105	41	16	12	98%
2018	159	75	28	18	100%
2019	209	106	44	13	100%
2020	181	67	23	17	100%
2021	154	66	26	20	99%
2022	161	64	20	15	100%
2023	135	42	16	15	100%
2024	126	56	19	21	100%
2025	131	45	19	11	100%

Roselle and Mill Creek

The USGS gauge at St. Francis River near Mill Creek (07035800) sits a few miles below the Silver Mines take-out and drains 505 square miles — a bit over twice the 234 square miles above Roselle. It reports discharge in cfs every 15 minutes and has a complete, unbroken record, which makes it the backstop whenever the Corps feed at Roselle goes quiet.

Across 264 storm rises in the shared record, a crest at Roselle turned up at Mill Creek about 3 hours later — the two gauges move together almost in step, so Mill Creek can tell you the Saint is coming up when Roselle is not reporting, but it cannot replace the Roselle number you actually run on.

Measured over the shared record, Roselle stage lines up with Mill Creek flow roughly like this: 3.0 ft ≈ 269 cfs · 4.0 ft ≈ 1,010 cfs · 5.0 ft ≈ 2,188 cfs · 6.0 ft ≈ 3,650 cfs · 8.0 ft ≈ 7,116 cfs. The Corps’ own rating puts Roselle at about 145 cfs at 3 ft, 490 cfs at 4 ft and 1,700 cfs at 6 ft. Mill Creek always carries more water than the whitewater reach, so its cfs is a companion number — never the level you put on for. The shut-ins are read at Roselle and on the D bridge.

Roselle (ft)	D-bridge	Mill Creek median (cfs)	typical range
2.5	below the floor	102	70–141
3.0	0 in	269	217–330
3.5	8 in	570	488–676
4.0	15 in	1,010	884–1,172
4.5	22 in	1,588	1,385–1,800
5.0	30 in	2,188	1,909–2,418
6.0	45 in — bridge deck	3,650	3,255–4,005
7.0	1.2 ft over the bridge	5,385	4,824–5,840
8.0	2.5 ft over the bridge	7,116	5,368–7,719
10.0	5.0 ft over the bridge	10,838	9,207–11,912
12.0	7.5 ft over the bridge	17,450	14,325–18,606

These bands are the paddling community’s, not a government standard, and Roselle is a Corps stage gauge rather than a USGS streamflow gauge — its rating has been revised over the years and its cfs is a Corps rating, not a measurement. Treat everything here as a description of what the river has done, never a promise about what it will do. Confirm at the gauge and on the D bridge before you put on.

Built from the USACE CWMS record for Roselle (office MVS, Roselle-St Francis.Stage.Inst.15Minutes) and USGS instantaneous data at Mill Creek 07035800. Record 2003–2025; generated 2026-09-15. ← back to the St. Francis dashboard

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DISCLAIMER: This site provides creek condition estimates for informational purposes only. Gauge data, radar estimates, and forecasts may be delayed, inaccurate, or unavailable. Always exercise independent judgment. Whitewater kayaking is inherently dangerous — water conditions can change rapidly. This site and its maintainers assume no responsibility for decisions made based on information displayed here.