Oh, The Wild River Levels Of The Ohio......

For so many people living near the Ohio River, they simply do not understand the wild fluctuations of the river level. While the river rises and falls all year long, historically, January-March have been the time period where the waters have risen to dramatic levels. The latest extreme flood of 1997  (64.7 feet) was in early March, as were the 1945 (69.2 feet) and 1964 floods (66.2). The combination of spring rains and melting winter snows to the north create a "recipe for floods" and all that come with such natural events.

So here we are having seen some heavy rains this week and blustery snow. As expected, this recipe for flood will result in just such an event. However, fear not, as we are not looking at any extraordinary event. The current projection for the Ohio River at Cincinnati/New Richmond is 36 feet (a good 10 feet+ above the approximate 25 foot "pool elevation"). We encourage everyone from the region to stop by and check out our beautiful river.

While visiting New Richmond last weekend for music at the Green Kayak, we were shown a cool picture of the Green Kayak building (Old Mason Lodge/Drug Store building). We were told that the picture was provided by Historic New Richmond archives. How cool is this?

The folks at the Kayak told us that a Historic New Richmond representative estimated the photo from the 1880s/1890s. According to the data on the NewRichmond.org website, the flood level of 200 Front Street (the address of the red 3 story building int he photo with the Drug Store sign) is 58.7 feet.  The following chart of Historical Floods was copied from the National Weather Service website data on historical floods of the Ohio River at the Cincinnati/New Richmond area . We bolded the historical flood data that appear to confirm the date of the photo provided by Historic New Richmond:

(14) 61.40 ft on 03/29/1898
(15) 61.32 ft on 03/03/1962
(16) 61.27 ft on 03/01/1962
(17) 61.20 ft on 02/01/1918
(18) 61.20 ft on 02/26/1897
(19) 61.00 ft on 03/10/1955
(20) 60.80 ft on 01/04/1943
(21) 60.60 ft on 03/28/1936
(22) 60.04 ft on 04/24/1940
(23) 59.90 ft on 03/23/1943
(24) 59.80 ft on 03/11/1967
(25) 59.70 ft on 04/27/1901
(26) 59.40 ft on 03/10/1963
(27) 59.20 ft on 03/25/1890

Enjoy the River and watch the flood waters rush on by......See you on the water.