Because of the possibility of flooding in creeks and rivers this spring, we are providing the current streamflow hydrograph for Redfish Creek. This will be updated every few days during the spring freshet period, and about monthly later in the year.

Click here for latest hydrograph

The flow Redfish Creek has been measured by the Water Survey of Canada for the years 1967-1987, and 1993 to the present. Redfish Creek is a 26 km² watershed on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake, which drains an area from above treeline (2300 m) to the valley bottom at Kootenay Lake. It is representative of many small to medium sized watersheds (10 to 100 km²) in the West Kootenays, which include some alpine terrain. Smaller watersheds lying entirely below treeline will peak earlier in the spring, while larger watersheds with more high alpine terrain will peak later.

Mean daily streamflow and annual peak instantaneous flow data are available from the Water Survey of Canada, usually about one year later. The Ministry of Forests also has a water level recorder at the same site on Redfish Creek, which measures water level on a nearly continuous basis (15 minute intervals). We calculate the approximate discharge, using the Water Survey of Canada rating curve for previous years. These discharge estimates are approximate, and will be replaced by the Water Survey of Canada’s calculations later.

The graph shows our continuous discharge estimate, and the mean daily discharge for the previous three years. Peak instantaneous discharge is also shown as points for the 1993-2001 period, as well as the highest flood on record, which occurred in 1968.