About this river
Otter Creek is a 3.8 mile river near Wonderlich Outdoors in Iowa. Streamflow is measured at the USGS gauge South River near Ackworth, IA (site 05487470). The National Hydrography Dataset places it at stream order 5. Reach geometry comes from the USGS National Hydrography Dataset.
Typical flow by month
1941 to 2026
Otter Creek typically runs highest in April, at a median 163 cfs, and lowest in October, at 9.2 cfs. The highest flow on record for any single day is 31,400 cfs, in 1990.
| Month | Typical (cfs) | Usual range (cfs) | Relative level |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24 | 7.2 to 84 | |
| February | 49 | 16 to 142 | |
| March | 145 | 48 to 386 | |
| April | 163 | 53 to 356 | |
| May | 140 | 58 to 378 | |
| June | 95 | 28 to 297 | |
| July | 28 | 13 to 101 | |
| August | 15 | 6.9 to 48 | |
| September | 10 | 4.8 to 45 | |
| October | 9.2 | 4.2 to 56 | |
| November | 21 | 6.0 to 88 | |
| December | 24 | 6.3 to 78 |
Typical is the median of each month’s daily median values, and the usual range runs from the median 25th to the median 75th percentile, across about 86 years of record. Statistics published by the US Geological Survey for South River near Ackworth, IA (site 05487470). Conditions on any given day can fall well outside the usual range. Check the current reading before you go.
Embed this gauge on your site
Paste this snippet anywhere, an outfitter page, a club site, a trip report, to show Otter Creek's live streamflow, water level and 7-day trend. It reads the USGS gauge directly, updates itself, and links back here.
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