Does anybody know how to get to the statewide streamflow table on the updated site? It's not intuitive to navigate. I'm no tech wizard though...
USGS water data site
- Thread starter Greenbuttskunk
- Start date
I think they finally killed that page. The new UI looks more "modern," but I personally preferred the old page. There are some cool things about the new page, and I'm still learning how it works, so I'll probably come around. I do like that once you figure out where your favorite stations are located on the map, you don't have to go to a new page to see the latest station data (just tap the dot). I also like that the default measurement unit is CFS, as opposed to gage height, which I generally find fairly useless.
USGS Washington Water Data
USGS Washington Water Data
Wayne Kohan
Life of the Party
Hmm, this is where I go.
waterdata.usgs.gov
Washington water conditions - USGS Water Data for the Nation
Explore USGS monitoring locations within Washington that collect continuously sampled water data
waterdata.usgs.gov
Instead of the old streamflow table that was a bit of a hassle for me to find a specific stream without a word search, now the statewide map displays all of the gauging stations. I can zoom into the map to see them more clearly but I wish they were labeled or had a "hover" feature where the name would appear by holding the cursor over the blue dots. The gauge names will display below the map by clicking on the blue dots.
It can take several minutes to accomplish but also new is the ability to find specific streams on the map and check the
Select for My favorites box that changes the dot color from blue to green. Then my favorite streams show up in a My Favorites table below the map. Plus there is a View your My Favorites page link that provides lots of display options. I personally like to display the median and previous year data.
Unfortunately the favorites may disappear if I have to clear browser cache and cookies to fix wonky browser issues.
After a long winter of cabin fever wating for water levels to drop and fishing conditions to stabilize, the Subscribe to WaterAlert link has become real helpful for me. I am a CFS nerd that has recorded water levels in my fishing journal with notes on water clarity and wading. I also query friends and find intel on this forum and put the CFS data into an Excel table. As a result I have a real good idea of what CFS are for a high probability that the water has cleared and I can safely wade.
The Water Alert feature will email (or text) me when the water drops below the highest level I like to fish. I set the highest level and a level a bit lower so that I will get at least one daily email when the water is between those levels. It is very awesome data to have for year round streams.
Another site I REALLY like is the
National Water Prediction Service - NOAA
water.noaa.gov
The landing page shows a similar map.
Clicking on a gauge displays the graph in a separate pane
and the Full Gauge Page link displays
I really liked the way the old page displayed. All gauges in the state displayed on one page with the latest cfs and gauge height. I could check all my favorite, or back when I was still working, all my personal project rivers in one minute. Now it takes over a minute to get the data I want for a single stream. It's way less user friendly to me this way. Also, I much preferred having gauges organized by watershed basin. Everyone knows that rivers pay no attention to county or state boundary lines. FFS, that's just a bad organizational idea.
Could taking the time to initially use the
Select for My favorites function (and every time you want to add a gauge) make it even faster than the old page for locating your favorite, or personal project rivers? And the My Favorites page is a separate bookmarkable URL.
Dustin Chromers
Legend
It's almost as if every update be it government or Microsoft just brings an interior product that's more confusing to use. Leave it alone already. Windows 7 was fine. The old usgs site was great. I agree the new one sucks. I wonder what it cost us for the upgrade that's actually a downgrade?
Too much, go get'em Rover
Yard Sale
Life of the Party
That appears to duplicate the same data and format as the NOAA National Water Prediction Service at a different URL than I showed above. Last year the NWPS replaced the NOAA American Hydrological Prediction Service I had used for years. If they are both NOAA sites I wonder if shutting one site down would save enough money to increase the number of gauges with Prediction capability?
HauntedByWaters
Life of the Party
They set everything up for first time users because first time users complain the most. It’s amazing how much better an alphabetical list is than 90% of “user interfaces”.
Because it makes so much sense when a river has gauges in two or more counties, that a more advanced user prefers having to check multiple counties to get all the gauge readings on a single river? Fvck that! Sign me up for organizing by watershed and river basins, which is geographically and hydrologically logical, whereas counties are a human construct over layer.
The Favorites I saved did disappear from the from the new Washington water conditions landing page the following day without clearing cache and cookies.
Washington water conditions - USGS Water Data for the Nation
Explore USGS monitoring locations within Washington that collect continuously sampled water data
waterdata.usgs.gov
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