River Flow Checker

Current cfs, gauge height and a 12-hour trend for a USGS river gauge. Pick one of ten Mountain West waters or type any USGS site number.

How to read it

• cfs is cubic feet per second, the volume passing the gauge. The same number means very different water on a small creek and a big river, and on a dam-controlled tailwater it often reflects a release schedule. This page does not tell you what a good number is for your water. Your local fly shop or the river's own guide does.
• Gauge height is the water level at the gauge in feet, measured from a local reference point. It is not water depth where you are standing.
• Trend compares the newest reading with the one closest to 12 hours earlier. More than 5 percent up is rising, more than 5 percent down is falling, anything else is steady.
• Provisional data. USGS marks recent readings provisional and revises them. A reading older than 4 hours is flagged as stale.

Not every gauge reports every measurement. If a gauge has no discharge sensor you will see that rather than a guess.

Sources

Streamflow, gauge height and water temperature: U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Information System Instantaneous Values service, https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/iv/ (parameters 00060, 00065, 00010), requested from your browser at the moment you press the button. Streamflow and gauge height data: USGS Water Services, provisional and subject to revision. This site does not store or proxy the data. The ten starter waters and their gauge numbers are from the Hatch Window app's source file src/data/spots.ts (commit 3ea20fe). The 12-hour trend rule and the 4-hour stale rule mirror src/lib/usgs.ts in the same repository.