Live from the gauges
Rivers & Bayous
Every public water gauge in Lonoke County, read live from the U.S. Geological Survey — plus the National Weather Service flood outlook for the rivers that surround the prairie. The same numbers duck hunters, farmers, and the Road Department watch.
The county's home water
Bayou Meto near Lonoke, right now
The bayou the county grew up along — and the water that feeds the Bayou Meto WMA's famous green-timber duck holes downstream. USGS station 07264000 reports every 15 minutes.
Source: USGS 07264000 — Bayou Meto near Lonoke. Sparklines show the last 7 days. If readings don't load, the gauge or your connection is offline — the bayou is still there.
Around the county
The other county gauges
Two more surface-water stations watch the county's water — one on the old Plum Bayou mounds lake, one on Bayou Two Prairie at Carlisle.
USGS 07263708 · rain gauge loads live
USGS 07264200
The rivers around us
Flood outlook
Lonoke County sits in the middle of big-river country — the Arkansas to the west, the White and the Cache to the east. When they run high, the bottoms flood, county roads close, and the green timber fills for duck season.
These are official National Weather Service forecast points, each with its live stage, its flood stage, and the short-term forecast.
Water over a county road?
Turn around, don't drown — then report it to the Road Department at (501) 676-6403 so crews can sign and barricade it.
Loading the river forecast… (needs JavaScript & a connection)
Source: NWS National Water Prediction Service. Categories are the official NWS action/minor/moderate/major flood stages for each point.
Under the prairie
Groundwater — the water we farm with
Rice country runs on the alluvial aquifer. The USGS keeps monitoring wells across the county that report how far down the water table sits — the number every irrigation well depends on.
"Feet down" is depth to water below the land surface — smaller is a fuller aquifer. Some wells report a few times a day, others a few times a season; each card shows the date of its reading.
Reading the water
What these numbers mean
Gage height (stage) is how deep the water stands at the gauge, in feet above a fixed reference. Streamflow (discharge) is how much water is moving — cubic feet per second. A slow bayou can be deep but barely moving; a flash flood can move a lot of water before the stage looks scary. Watch both.
The Bayou Meto WMA's green-timber hunting depends on water arriving in the oaks at the right depth at the right time. Rising stages on Bayou Meto and the White River mean the bottoms are filling; falling stages after a front send the birds looking for new water. The gauge page is half the scouting report.
Most irrigation here pumps from the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. When depth-to-water creeps down year over year, wells cost more to run and some go dry — which is why the county's irrigation districts, tailwater recovery pits, and reservoir projects matter. These wells are the long-term scoreboard.
Probably not. Field equipment goes offline for maintenance, floods, ice, and lightning — Bayou Two Prairie at Carlisle, for instance, has been in and out of service. When a station stops reporting, its card says so instead of showing a stale number. Everything on this page comes straight from the public USGS and NWS feeds in your own browser; the county never edits the readings.
More living information