Cullowhee Creek · Jackson County, NC
A flood warning for a mountain creek that never had one.
After Hurricane Helene, the streams that flood fastest in these mountains still had no gauges. This puts sensors in the water and weather in the picture — to buy the one thing that matters in a flash flood: a little time.
Two halves, one system
Solar-powered sensors along the creek measure how high and how fast it’s running, and relay each reading out by radio, cellular, and satellite — so a measurement gets through even when the power is out and the roads are gone.
A forecast engine watches radar, rainfall, and how saturated the ground already is, then estimates how the creek will respond — hours before it does. In these mountains, rain squeezed up over the ridges is what turns a stream dangerous.
Current conditions
The live view — the same map the system runs on. Each sub-basin is colored by its status, from normal through watch, warning, and emergency.
Right now this runs on forecast rainfall and NEXRAD radar. The in-stream sensors deploy over the 2026–27 season; until then, some thresholds stay deliberately cautious.
How it works
The sensors in the creek, the gateways that carry the data out, the satellites overhead, and the weather that drives it all. Drag to look around; switch between the sensor network, the forecast layer, and the campus alert ladder.
Interactive · the terrain is schematic and sensor positions are indicative — a diagram of how the parts fit, not a survey map.
Why
In September 2024, Helene turned quiet Appalachian streams into something unrecognizable. The big rivers everyone watches have gauges and warnings. The small headwater creeks — the ones that go from ankle-deep to over-the-bank in minutes — mostly don’t. Cullowhee Creek is one of them.
The approach comes out of a habit learned just up the road at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory: measure the ground truth, then trust what you measured. Instruments in the field, checked against reality, carried into a job that’s now about warning people in time.
Where it stands
The forecast layer is live now. The sensor network is being built and calibrated over the coming field seasons. Until real floods pass real gauges, some thresholds stay cautious on purpose — the system would rather say watch early than promise more than it can yet prove.
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