General
WaterLevels.org is an independent site that maps USGS water-monitoring locations and selected Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Weather Service (NWPS), and California Data Exchange Center gauges, and presents streamflow, water level (gage height or reservoir elevation), and water temperature in a browsable map, state directories, and station detail pages. When a National Weather Service forecast point is linked to a USGS gauge, we also show flood categories and stage thresholds—including on the flood alerts list.
Yes. The map, state listings, flood alerts list, station pages, charts, and CSV exports on gauge pages are free to use. Optional email alerts for stations you watch are also free. There are no paid tiers.
No. WaterLevels.org is a private project operated by Bytoro LLC. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the USGS, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Weather Service, NOAA, the Department of the Interior, or the Department of Defense. For the authoritative hydrologic record at any station, use the official agency page linked from each gauge. For official flood forecasts and watches/warnings, use water.noaa.gov and local NWS products.
Anyone who wants a clearer view of public water data: neighbors checking a local river, paddlers and anglers, journalists, students, or anyone comparing nearby gauges. It is for informational browsing, not engineering design, flood response, or legal decisions.
No. You can browse the map, directories, and station pages without signing in. Optional email alerts use a simple email confirmation (double opt-in) and a private manage link — not a password account. You can unsubscribe from any alert email or the preference page anytime. See How do email alerts work?. Flood-related emails are informational only; rely on the National Weather Service for watches and warnings.
Data & sources
Nearly all stream and lake observation values come from the USGS Water Data APIs (streamflow, gage height / stage, water temperature, and related site metadata).
Selected Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs (for example Lake Mead) use daily lake/reservoir elevation from USBR RISE.
Selected U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects (for example Raystown Lake) use lake/reservoir elevation from the CWMS Data API.
Selected NWPS gauges without a USGS site id publish observed stage from the NWPS API (for example Alpowa Creek at Mouth).
Selected California reservoirs (for example Lake Oroville) use daily lake/reservoir elevation from the California Data Exchange Center.
Flood categories (action, minor, moderate, major) and stage thresholds come from the National Weather Service National Water Prediction Service (NWPS) via the NWPS API when we can match an NWPS forecast point to a USGS site number.
Read the full data disclosures for what we store, how we cache updates, and important limitations.
For matched gauges we show the current NWS flood category and the action, minor, moderate, and major stage thresholds from NWPS. Those values color map markers, appear on station pages (including hydrograph markers when thresholds are present), and power the national flood alerts list, which lists stations currently at action stage or above.
WaterLevels.org is not a warning system. Confirm flood conditions against official NWS products on water.noaa.gov and local emergency authorities when safety decisions matter.
Not every USGS monitoring location has an NWPS forecast point. When there is no match, we still show USGS measurements but omit flood category badges, stage thresholds, and alerts-list inclusion. Matching can also lag after a new gauge appears in USGS feeds.
Most USGS continuous stations report on the order of every 15 minutes, but remote sites can report less often. WaterLevels.org refreshes latest observations and NWPS flood categories on a schedule and serves cached pages, so the number or flood status you see can lag the live USGS or NWPS feed by minutes to hours—and occasionally longer if a sync has not completed.
Each station page shows the timestamp of the latest observation we have stored so you can judge freshness.
USGS marks many real-time values as provisional. Those readings can be revised, corrected, or removed after review. Approved values are more stable but still follow USGS publication practices. NWPS flood categories and thresholds can also change as conditions and forecasts update. If this site and an official USGS or NWS page disagree, treat the official source as correct.
Station charts and tables use history we have cached for that gauge—typically recent continuous (sub-daily, often ~15-minute) points, plus daily and peak series where available. Short charts keep about 35 days of continuous points in our primary database; older daily history is served from a cold archive. USGS long charts currently go back about 3 years of daily means. Some curated agency reservoir pages (USBR, USACE, CDEC) unlock a 10-year daily elevation tab once more than 3 years of archive coverage exists; the chart shows up to 10 years or the agency period of record, whichever is shorter. Retention is finite (not the full USGS archive back to the early 1900s).
For the complete period of record, use the official agency station page.
Yes. Gauge detail pages include a measurements table with CSV export for the loaded history. We do not sell a third-party data API or resell raw USGS or NWS access. For bulk or programmatic use at scale, prefer the USGS Water Data APIs and the NWPS API directly.
Gaps and mismatches can appear when a sensor is offline, a parameter was discontinued, our sync lagged, a station falls outside the site types we keep, an NWPS match is missing, or USGS/NWPS rate limits interrupted a refresh. A “stale” label means our latest stored observation is older than our freshness threshold (currently one week), not necessarily that USGS stopped collecting data.
Map & stations
We focus on active continuous surface-water and related sites that currently report water level, streamflow/discharge, and/or water temperature. We do not host the full USGS groundwater-well archive or every historical field measurement.
Markers reflect National Weather Service flood categories from NWPS when we have a match for that gauge:
- Cyan / normal — no flooding (or no elevated category)
- Amber — action stage
- Orange — minor flooding
- Rose — moderate flooding
- Red — major flooding
Stations without an NWPS match still appear with USGS data but without a flood-category color. WaterLevels.org is not a warning system—confirm against official NWS and USGS products when safety decisions matter. See also What flood data do you show?.
The Flood Alerts page lists USGS stations that currently have an NWS flood category of action stage or higher, grouped by state. It uses the same NWPS categories and stage thresholds shown on the map and station pages, with filters for flood stage and measurement type. It is a public national list — separate from optional email alerts you can request for stations you watch.
On the homepage search, use the locate control to request your location once and jump toward the nearest station, or search by station name, river, or place. The interactive map also supports browsing by area; state directories at paths like /gauges/wa list stations by county.
Current conditions for available parameters, NWS flood category when linked, a trend chart (with an optional hourly readings table and CSV export), optional email alerts for the station, and compact lists of on-stream and nearby stations when those neighbors are indexed. Temperature can be shown in °F or °C via the site preference control.
If it is an active USGS continuous site reporting parameters we already ingest, it should appear after catalog sync. If something is missing, contact us with the USGS site number. We can only surface stations with publicly available machine-readable USGS feeds that match our filters.
Email Alerts
Optional emails for stations you watch. Sign up from a gauge page with your address, confirm the message we send, then we can notify you about flood-category changes, optional reading thresholds, and an optional daily digest. There is no password account — just a private manage link in your emails. Unsubscribe anytime.
Emails are informational only and can lag the live USGS or NWS feed. Rely on the National Weather Service for watches and warnings.
Open a station page and use Get email alerts. Enter your email, leave Include in daily digest checked if you want that station in the digest, and choose Subscribe. Check your inbox (and spam) for a confirmation. That message includes a link to undo the station if you did not mean to sign up.
Confirmation links expire in 48 hours. You can watch more stations the same way — up to 25 per address.
Depending on what you enable:
- Confirmation — after you subscribe, so we know the address is yours (and so you can undo that station)
- Flood category changes — when a watched station with an NWS flood match moves into action stage or a higher category, and again when it returns to no flooding (on by default)
- Threshold alerts — when water level or discharge crosses a value you set (off until you turn it on)
- Daily digest — a once-a-day snapshot of stations you include
- Manage link — when you request one from Manage email alerts
Stations without an NWS flood match still get digest and threshold emails if you enable those, but not flood-category emails.
A once-a-day email with the latest gage height, discharge, and flood category we have for each station you include. It sends around the hour you choose on the manage page, in your time zone (default 7:00). You can uncheck a station’s digest, turn the digest off for all emails, or skip it at signup.
On the manage page, enable Threshold alert for a station, pick water level or discharge, above or below, and a value. We email when the latest reading crosses that line. Thresholds stay off until you turn them on, and they need a recent reading — stale data will not fire.
Every confirmation and alert email includes a private manage link. You can also request a fresh link from Manage email alerts (no password). There you can pause all emails, change digest timing and time zone, toggle flood / digest / threshold per station, or remove a station.
To watch a new station, open its gauge page and use Get email alerts again.
We detect your browser time zone when you first subscribe and use it for digest timing. Change the zone, digest hour, and digest minute anytime on the manage page under Digest & timezone.
Pause all alerts from the manage page without deleting your watches, then resume later. Remove one station from the same page, or use the unsubscribe links in any alert email — one station or everything. You can subscribe again from a gauge page later.
Confirm the address, then check spam or promotions. Request a manage link from Manage email alerts — we only send one if that address is already subscribed. If a confirmation link expired, subscribe again from the station page.
No. WaterLevels.org emails are informational only and are not watches, warnings, or emergency alerts. Confirm conditions against official NWS products on water.noaa.gov and local emergency authorities when safety decisions matter. See also What flood data do you show?.
Only to send the alerts you asked for and related messages (confirm, manage, unsubscribe). We do not sell it. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
Glossary
Gage height (often called stage) is the water-surface elevation at the gauge relative to a local datum—not depth from the streambed in most cases. USGS commonly reports it under parameter code 00065. Some sites instead report lake or reservoir elevation relative to a vertical datum such as NGVD 1929 or NAVD 1988.
Streamflow (discharge) is the volume of water moving past the gauge per unit time, typically in cubic feet per second (cfs). USGS parameter code 00060. It is related to stage through a rating curve maintained by USGS, but stage and discharge are separate measurements on this site.
These are National Weather Service categories from NWPS for how high the water is relative to impacts at that forecast point:
- Action — elevated levels; monitoring and preparedness may begin
- Minor — minimal or no property damage, but possibly some public threat
- Moderate — some inundation of structures and roads near streams
- Major — extensive inundation, significant evacuations, and/or significant infrastructure impacts
Thresholds are location-specific stage heights (often in feet of gage height) published by NWS for each forecast point. On WaterLevels.org they appear as station badges, hydrograph markers, and map colors when an NWPS match exists. Exact definitions and impacts are on water.noaa.gov.
Every USGS monitoring location has a numeric site identifier (for example, 12113000). WaterLevels.org URLs use that number plus a readable slug, such as
/gauges/wa/12113000-green-river-near-auburn.
Use the site number when contacting us or looking up the same station on USGS.
They are vertical datums—reference systems for elevation. Some lake and reservoir gauges report water-surface height above NGVD 1929 or NAVD 1988 instead of (or in addition to) local gage height. Values in different datums are not interchangeable without a conversion.
USGS water temperature is stored in Celsius. The interface defaults to Fahrenheit and can switch units via the temperature preference control; the underlying observation is the same either way.