New River level at Radford
Virginia · Tubing & floating
Measured at USGS 03171000 — NEW RIVER AT RADFORD, VA · NWS forecast point RDFV2
Reading taken · as of 48 min ago
Low and slow — expect to drag in the shallows
At 988 CFS, this gauge is running 57% of normal for mid-September — below the 1,730 CFS median USGS has recorded for this date across 86 years of record (1940–2026).
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Flood stages at Radford
National Weather Service categories for gauge RDFV2, WFO RNK. Impact wording is the NWS's own, verbatim.
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Major flood 20.0 ft · 81,438 CFS
- 20.0 ft Flooding along sections of Hazel Hollow road (State Route 626) on Pulaski County side of the river.
- 22.0 ft Water approaches the main road in Bissett Park.
- 25.0 ft Dedmon Center at Radford University affected.
- 28.0 ft Green Hill Apartments parking lot floods and Radford University student apartment parking lots are affected.
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Moderate flood 16.0 ft · 58,017 CFS
- 16.0 ft Significant flooding occures in Bissett Park.
- 17.0 ft All of Dedmon Center lower parking lots are flooded.
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Minor flood 14.0 ft · 49,046 CFS
- 14.0 ft Riverside parking lots are affected
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Action 12.0 ft · 38,480 CFS
- 12.5 ft Water begins to affect parts of Parrott River Road several miles downstream from Radford on left bank of the river.
- Right now 1.93 ft
NWS forecast: 2.00 ft by .
Flow history at Radford
Daily values from USGS 03171000, updated every 15 to 60 minutes; NWS forecast for RDFV2 reissued through the day. Provisional.
Highest crests on record at Radford
12 on record
| Stage | Flow | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 35.96 ft | 218,000 CFS | Aug 14, 1940 |
| 31.03 ft | 167,000 CFS | Sep 28, 2024 |
| 24.10 ft | 108,000 CFS | Nov 7, 1977 |
| 24.04 ft | 108,000 CFS | Jan 15, 1995 |
| 23.83 ft | 109,000 CFS | Oct 12, 2018 |
| 21.73 ft | 92,600 CFS | Sep 23, 1989 |
| 21.71 ft | 93,500 CFS | May 22, 2020 |
| 21.13 ft | 89,300 CFS | Jan 31, 2013 |
| 20.21 ft | 80,600 CFS | Jun 21, 1972 |
| 20.02 ft | 79,300 CFS | May 28, 1973 |
Crests published by the National Weather Service.
About New River at Radford
The New at Radford is a dam-controlled float, and the dam is the fact that explains everything else. Claytor Lake sits directly upstream, so Appalachian Power's generation schedule can change what is under your tube within an hour on a clear day. It is the reason a Radford float can be a very different river at 4pm than it was at noon.
The float market here is a student market: Virginia Tech and Radford between them put a lot of first-time floaters on this water in warm weather, on a river that is wide and slow enough to look forgiving and pushy enough not to be. The percent-of-normal figure above is the honest read on whether it is a lazy day or a fast one.
Reservoir feeding this stretch
Flow here is set by releases from Claytor Lake. A full pool usually means more water on its way down.
New River at Radford — common questions
5 questions
How much does Claytor Dam change the New River at Radford?
Enough to matter within an hour. Claytor is a hydroelectric project, so it generates when power is wanted rather than on a published recreation schedule, and the release changes the flow here without any rain anywhere in the basin. The pool level upstream is tracked on lakelvl.com; a full pool generally means more water available to send down.
Is this the same New River people raft in West Virginia?
Same river, different animal. It flows north from North Carolina through Virginia and into West Virginia, where the New River Gorge below Hinton is the whitewater everyone means. At Radford it is upstream of all that — broad, moderate and floated rather than rafted.
Does rain upstream change New River at Radford quickly?
Less than you would expect. Below Claytor Lake, the dam schedule matters more than rainfall — a storm fills the reservoir first, and the operator decides when it reaches you. The river can come up on a clear day.
Is New River at Radford high or low for this time of year?
The USGS median flow for mid-September here is 1,730 CFS, from 86 years of record (1940–2026). Today is 57% of it. The comparison is what makes the raw number mean anything: the same reading is a drought on one river and a flood on another.
How often does this reading update?
USGS transmits from gauge 03171000 every 15 to 60 minutes, and the National Weather Service reissues the flood forecast for RDFV2 a few times a day — more often when the river is rising. This page refreshes from both when you open it. The timestamp is in the gauge's local time.