When they say, “river crested at 26 feet” where are they measuring from? The bottom of the river? The ‘normal’ water level?

Question

When they say, “river crested at 26 feet” where are they measuring from? The bottom of the river? The ‘normal’ water level?

In: Other

Answer 1

The people measuring will have a set datum. In my city, which has pretty regular floods in the spring, the datum is set as the historic average winter ice level at the city’s old pumping station (which was on James Avenue, so the City refers to river height as “4.5 feet James”.