Learning how to use the USGS water data site
In the last post I talked about the importance of knowing the conditions of the waterway before leaving for your fishing, camping, or boating trip. I talked about going to the USGS Water Data site to get this access. So where do you go to get access to this mother load of geeky data? Go to waterdata.usgs.gov.
Once on this page select the current conditions tab and this takes you to the daily stream flow conditions page.
You should see a map of the United States with a bunch of colored dots.
If we scroll down a bit we will see an explanation of these dots. The dots represent current conditions of our waterways compared to historical flood levels. The blue dots represent areas of high water while the red dots represent areas of low water based on current conditions. You see a cluster of blue dots going up the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. This is telling us that these areas are currently suffering from high water conditions. Looking at the map we can also see that the upper northwest is suffering from low water conditions. Now if you want to see an area in more detail move your cursor over the map you will get the little hand icon and you will also get a quick display of the state you are hovered over. Once you get the correct state you are interested in hit the left mouse button and your state will be displayed.
This takes us to a state level map showing the same information. From here you will need to have an idea as to what county and location of the waterway you will be visiting. By hovering over a dot you will see a description of the station. Once the correct waterway and station is found click on it and you will be directed to the current data of that station.
It should look like this. This gives the station number, name, map coordinates, drainage area in square miles, how the information is transmitted. There is also a nice picture of the station.
Scrolling down the screen we see a section that lists the parameters available for the site, the date range for the data that is being displayed, and output format which is different ways to display the data. If you want to see the relationship of 2 or 3 parameters on the same graph then select the graph with up to 3 parameters and then select the parameters from the list on the left. You can change the date range by clicking on the begin date and changing it back another week or month or even a year or more. You can also change the end date to look at a different period. For now we will leave it at the default period of the last week.
I hope you stay with me for the next post because that is where we are going to start to talk about the specific parameters and how to interpret the graphs. Until then keep your gear dry and lines tight.
Comments