Hydrology numbers get big, confusing …
And obtuse.

Mississippi River’s annual discharged measured in Okeechobees
Millions of gallons per day, acre feet per year, cubic feet per second … the list goes on. The fact is, at some point it all just turns into a jumble of numbers. That’s where Lake Okeechobee comes in handy as a giant measuring spoon. Did you know that each year on average 100 Lake Okeechobee volumes worth of water discharges into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River. I could have said 400 million acre-feet of water, or some gargantuan number in gallons or cubic feet. But if you’ve ever stood on the levee of Lake Okeechobee and looked out at the expanse, it kind of puts it in perspective: The Mississippi discharges about one hundred Okeechobees into the Gulf each year. That’s one mighty river!
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Tidbit: The Mississippi River discharged over 160 Okeechobees into the Gulf during the flood year of 2000, and just over 60 during the drought years of 2006 and 2012.
