The terms and quirks of reading a river gauge, in plain language.
CFS stands for cubic feet per second: the volume of water passing a fixed point in the river every second. A cubic foot is about the size of a basketball. One cfs is one of those, passing a fixed point, every second. A small creek might run at 20 cfs; a major western river can run well over 10,000 cfs during spring runoff.
Gauge height, also spelled gage height and also called stage, is the water surface elevation at the gauge, measured in feet against a fixed reference point. It's the most direct measurement a gauge takes; discharge (cfs) is calculated from it using a rating curve specific to that site.
Compass direction has nothing to do with it.
Rivers flow downhill, following whatever path gravity and terrain gradient give them. Many rivers in the Lower 48 happen to trend south or east because of how the continent tilts, but plenty flow north, or any other direction, wherever that's the way the elevation drops. A river flowing north isn't unusual: it's just following the same rule every river follows, downhill, regardless of which way that happens to point on a map.
Each station's status badge compares today's reading to what's typical for that river on that day of year: high, low, or steady, plus an arrow showing whether it's currently rising or falling. It's a quick way to gauge conditions without parsing a raw number.
Most gauges report new readings every 15 to 60 minutes. The values on River Flow Co reflect the most recent reading available from the source network at the time the page loads.