Point layer · Water
Live stream gauge data across the western US
Live USGS streamflow — what is physically in the river right now.
Paper rights tell you what is permitted; stream gauge data tells you what is actually running. The gap between the two is where most water investments are won or lost, and a gauge upstream of your point of diversion is the cheapest reality check available.
- Source
- USGS
- Refresh
- Every 30 minutes
- Geometry
- Point
- Included from
- Water ($99/mo)
Why Stream Gauges matters
The gap between permitted paper water and wet water is where most water investments are won or lost. Basins are routinely appropriated well past their average yield, which means a mid-seniority right can be reliably worthless while the filing looks perfectly healthy. A gauge upstream of your point of diversion is the cheapest reality check available.
Questions Stream Gauges answers
- Is the stream my right diverts from actually flowing this week?
- How does this year's flow compare to what the permitted diversions assume?
- Which reaches go dry, and how often?
- Is there physical water to support a new industrial load here?
What is in the Stream Gauges data
Coverage: All active USGS gauging stations in the western US. Source dataset: National Water Information System (NWIS) real-time streamflow.
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Discharge (CFS) | Instantaneous flow at the station in cubic feet per second. |
| Gauge height | Stage in feet, the raw measurement discharge is derived from. |
| Station ID and name | The USGS site number and published station name for citation in reports. |
| Observation time | Timestamp of the most recent reading, so you can see staleness rather than guess at it. |
How we serve Stream Gauges
We poll the NWIS instantaneous-values service on a 30-minute cache and render each station at a fixed marker size shared with every other point layer, so a gauge never visually outranks the rights around it. Stations with no current reading render in the reserved no-data tone rather than an alarm color — missing data must never look like a problem, and must never look like it is fine.
Stream gauge data — source, refresh and coverage
- Steward
- USGS
- Dataset
- National Water Information System (NWIS) real-time streamflow
- Refresh cadence
- Every 30 minutes
- Coverage
- All active USGS gauging stations in the western US
- Records
- 4,025 rows
- Geometry
- Point
- Included from
- Water ($99/mo/mo)
Who uses Stream Gauges
Water Rights Investing
Price seniority, spot the mismatch between paper water and wet water, and find positions before they are listed.
Data Centers & AI Infrastructure
Power, water, fiber and permitting risk for every candidate site — before you send anyone to look at it.
Agriculture & Ranching
Know what your water is worth, how safe it is this year, and what your neighbors hold.
Government & Basin Management
A statewide inventory, live supply monitoring, and a public-facing record without building the platform.
Energy Development
Route corridors, site generation, and clear the environmental picture before the first landowner call.
Read Stream Gauges alongside
Reservoirs
Storage capacity and current levels across western reservoirs.
SNOTEL Snowpack
NRCS snow telemetry — next year's water supply, six months early.
Drought Monitor
US Drought Monitor severity by county — the year's supply risk, mapped.
Water Rights
2.1M+ adjudicated water rights across 17 western states, on one map.
Terms used on this page
See Stream Gauges on the map
This layer is included from Water ($99/mo) upward, alongside every other layer in the Water coverage.