Gauge Description:

The gauge is painted on the gorge wall (also known as Cabin gorge) in the Lower Section; you have to stop along the Kancamagus to look at it. It is located about 1 mile below the Albany covered bridge. Look for cabins across the river as the river drops below the view from the road; park carefully along the narrow shoulder and look up against the cliff on river left.
3/4' .....minimum scratchy level
1.25......Low
1.75......Low to medium
2.25......Medium
2.75......High
3' .......very high
Estimated chance (%) of finding the river runnable.

Month............% chance.................comment

January ............. 0%....frozen. 
February..............0%....frozen. 
March.................5%....Usually frozen.
April................65%....Best chance mid to late April 
May .................35%....Best chance in early May. 
June.................10%
July..................3% 
August................3%....Just a trickle 
September.............8%....Tropical storms and their remains 
October..............15%
November.............30%....Fall rains, dormant trees 
December.............20%....River starts freezing early to mid month.

Be aware this is averaged out over several years. The % chance refers to the probability of finding the river running on any given day. For instance a 3% probability for August means on average you can only expect 1 day of water. One year there could be 2 days in August with water, other years none. Spring levels are usually higher than fall levels. The river rises and falls rapidly because of the small steep watershed. An occasional summer storm could bring the river up for a day.

Building a "Virtual" gauge for the Swift

In the table below visual observations have been matched with actual USGS gauge readings from two other nearby watersheds. This is an attempt to build a “Virtual” gauge for the Swift. Virtual gauges work best during spring runoff and widespread rain events but should not be relied upon for localized rain events such as thunderstorm activity. Once enough observations have been matched with the USGS gauge readings, we will determine which USGS gauge best matches the Swifts runoff profile.

Gauge correlations for the  Swift river Albany NH Date Time Gorge Ellis USGS East Branch USGS Interpretation 4/3/02 1:00 pm 1.0 1.4 RR* 6.62 RR* Very low 4/4/02 1:30 pm 1.3 1.52 FR* 6.92 FR* low 4/5/02 7:00 am 1.0 1.39 S* 6.65 S* Very low 4/10/02 7:15 am 1.75 2.28 FS* 7.78 S* Low to medium 4/13/02 9:00 am 1.5 2.12 RS* 7.73 RS* Low to medium 3/30/03 7:30 am 3.5' 2.26 FR* 8.48 FR* Very High *RR=rising rapidly  RS=rising slowly  S=steady  FR=falling rapidly  FS=falling slowly

Swift 4 [ NH ]

Current Conditions

Stage	Flow	Updated
0.61		12/3 2:45

Station Graph

Linked Reaches

Search Results

Level Legend:

Running

Below Minimum Recommended Flow

Above Maximum Recommended Flow

Unknown

Descriptions of reaches with River Name in bold have been verified by a regional StreamTeam member.

State	River Name/Section	Class	Level	Rel. Level	Updated
NH	Swift— 3. Lower Falls to Darby Field sign	IV(V)	0.61 ft	low	12/3 2:45

Station Description

AW Gauge ID: 11120
StreamTeam Member: Matt Muir
Average of virtual gage Swift 2 (EB Pemi) and virtual gage Swift 3 (Saco Conway)

Formula

$x=(gauge(11110,"stage")+gauge(11118,"stage"))/2