About Futaleufú Levels
Río Futaleufú · how the live river level works
Open the live river level → Leer en español
What this site shows
Futaleufú Levels (chilewaterlevels.com) is a free web app that shows the Río Futaleufú river level today for rafters, kayakers and guides in Futaleufú, Los Lagos, Chile. It shows the live flow in cubic metres per second (m³/s, or cfs), the equivalent reading on the Bridge to Bridge put-in river gauge, the trend over the last hour, 24 hours, 7 and 30 days, and level alerts. It works in English and Spanish and can be installed on a phone's home screen.
For the current numbers in plain text, see the live reading page.
Where the data comes from
- Río Futaleufú flow: the hourly Caud.Rios value published by the Hidroeléctrica Futaleufú dam (Presa Amutui Quimey, Argentina) at chfutaleufu.com.ar. The site checks it every hour, a few minutes after the hour.
- Río Espolón: DGA Chile station 10701002-5 (Río Espolón en desagüe Lago Espolón), real-time provisional data republished by caudalrio.cl, an unofficial third-party site.
- Río Futaleufú ante junta Río Malito: DGA Chile station 10704002-1, used to estimate the other inflows.
- Río Azul has no gauge. Its flow is an estimate: 45% of the inflows between the dam, Río Espolón and the Malito station.
- Reservoir level: the dam's published reservoir elevation (Cota_Emb, metres above sea level).
- Air and water temperature, rain and wind come from the same dam page.
How the gauge estimate works
The Bridge to Bridge put-in staff gauge is read by eye at the river. The site converts the flow in m³/s to that gauge with a flow–gauge correlation chart, interpolating linearly between the points below and extrapolating outside them (flagged “off chart”). Readings are rounded to the nearest 5 and are approximate, about ±10%. Always scout.
Every time the app opens it adds both Río Espolón and the Río Azul estimate to the dam flow, because both join the Futaleufú above the Bridge to Bridge gauge. During a visit you can switch Río Azul off, or switch Río Espolón off to show the dam flow alone (turning Río Espolón off also turns Río Azul off, and turning Río Azul on also turns Río Espolón on).
| Flow (m³/s) | Flow (cfs) | Gauge |
|---|---|---|
| 80 | 2,825 | -100 |
| 100 | 3,531 | -90 |
| 120 | 4,238 | -80 |
| 180 | 6,357 | -70 |
| 200 | 7,063 | -50 |
| 220 | 7,769 | -30 |
| 240 | 8,476 | -20 |
| 260 | 9,182 | -10 |
| 280 | 9,888 | +10 |
| 300 | 10,594 | +20 |
| 320 | 11,301 | +30 |
| 340 | 12,007 | +35 |
| 360 | 12,713 | +40 |
| 380 | 13,420 | +50 |
| 400 | 14,126 | +60 |
| 420 | 14,832 | +70 |
Units
1 m³/s = 35.3147 cubic feet per second (cfs). The app has an m³/s | cfs switch; the gauge reading has no unit.
Open data and how to cite
/api/current: current reading (JSON)./api/history.csv?range=30d: hourly flow and gauge estimate (CSV;range=7d,30d… orfrom=YYYY-MM-DD&to=YYYY-MM-DD)./api/history.csv?format=wide&range=30d: all gauges, hourly.
Cite as: Futaleufú Levels, chilewaterlevels.com, data from Hidroeléctrica Futaleufú and DGA Chile. Readings are provisional and the gauge value is an estimate; do not use them as the only basis for safety decisions.