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For anyone curious about water levels around their region, the US Geological Service monitors water levels in real time across thousands of stations. I had a gr

For anyone curious about water levels around their region, the US Geological Service monitors water levels in real time across thousands of stations. I had a great discussion with a couple USGS data scientists at the RStudio conference in July. Their remote monitoring stations report the data to their servers typically in 15 minute intervals. If you're worried about the water level at a particular location, they have a service which allows you to get alerts if it exceeds a certain level. They're in the middle of redoing many of their online tools, so it's a mix of legacy and modern looking web development. They get their funding from contracts with other federal agencies or private businesses, not directly from the government. For example, a company may have a permit that they can pull 100,000 cubic feet of water from a stream per day, but that the stream level must not go below 5 feet. USGS would add monitoring after the draw point and provide that data to the client (and public) at the client's expense. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

bombcar 4y ago
Also if you're interested in the flood level of a river near you, put the alerts on the areas upstream as you can often get advance warning.
jeffbee 4y ago
That's a great site. I usually start from water.weather.gov but I don't remember why. It's cool how much data U.S. governments collect. You can get everything from water flow and depth to the price and quality of wholesale lettuce. Tidbit from your water gage link: parts of central Florida are still under record-high floods, days after the hurricane. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02296750/#parameterCode=00065&startDT=2007-10-01&endDT=2022-10-01 https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02296750/#par...
- jonwachob91 4y ago
  Water levels along waterways (such as the one you linked) will continue to rise maybe another week+ as water drains into the waterways. It takes time for "high" lands to drain their water, and all that water drains into waterways (such as the one you linked). iirc, after Irma a few years ago, it took almost 2 weeks for waterways to begin receding to normal levels.

bombcar 4y ago

Also if you're interested in the flood level of a river near you, put the alerts on the areas upstream as you can often get advance warning.

jeffbee 4y ago

That's a great site. I usually start from water.weather.gov but I don't remember why. It's cool how much data U.S. governments collect. You can get everything from water flow and depth to the price and quality of wholesale lettuce. Tidbit from your water gage link: parts of central Florida are still under record-high floods, days after the hurricane. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02296750/#parameterCode=00065&startDT=2007-10-01&endDT=2022-10-01 https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/02296750/#par...

jonwachob91 4y ago
Water levels along waterways (such as the one you linked) will continue to rise maybe another week+ as water drains into the waterways. It takes time for "high" lands to drain their water, and all that water drains into waterways (such as the one you linked). iirc, after Irma a few years ago, it took almost 2 weeks for waterways to begin receding to normal levels.