urchaidh wrote:
Conor O'Neill wrote:

But we were trying to decide what 'in spate' actually means, or is
assumed to mean. Any suggestions?


I always considered spate as a lower water level than flood, spate is
bank full or just above, as much water as the river can carry without
actually flooding and withough bursting its banks.

Lots of rivers in The Scottish Guidebook are classed as spate runs -
you want them full but not ncessarily in flood.


Well, I suppose that does seem to make sense.

So it seems that perhaps 'bank full' is approximately equal to 'in spate'.

Terry Storry's old white water book always claimed that the rivers were
graded as bank full. Which didn't help much, because I hardly ever saw
any of my favourite rivers at that level.

--
Conor O'Neill, at home in Bristol, UK