Tracking water level

How do you keep track and monitor the water levels in your area?



Is there a website that calculates it all based on rainfall, time of year, etc.?

depends on type of water
In my area there is the Pacific Ocean. Global warming aside, I refer to tide tables and swell forecasts and buoy readings to determine the relevant conditions.

On the rivers in the state I use Americanwhitewater.org or Dreamflows. For reservoirs I need to refer to other sources, water districts reporting, and so on.

Here you go

– Last Updated: Jun-22-11 4:56 PM EST –

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/FL/nwis/current?type=flow&group_key=county_cd&search_site_no_station_nm=

You can click on individual monitoring stations. Of course the numbers are fairly meaningless until you learn what 2' (for example) means on a given body of water. Where the measuring stick is placed is pretty arbitrary. It might be in a deep pool or a shallow section. For example, my local water paddleable when it's 1' on the gage. Another creek in NY is only paddleable over 9'. Guidebooks often give you the runnable levels.

for rivers what clarion said …

– Last Updated: Jun-23-11 12:51 AM EST –

...... USGS gage sites , super important for piedmont to mountain stretches of rivers .

If you want to get an idea of how the river goes up and down over time , and up (as in too much) is the danger part ... once you select a particular gage site , just type in any number of days (up to 120) in the box in the parameter section .

It's always important to check the gages a good bit up river of where you intend to be as well , because what's going on up there will soon be coming your way . But as clarion said , you have to know what those numbers mean , so that means you need to learn the river and know what numbers are high , normal or low flow .

Clarion is right,
for example, one of the rivers I paddle needs to be over 11 ft at the gage I refer to, or it will be too shallow.



I am also in central Florida—email me if you want specifics on the local rivers.

sites

– Last Updated: Jun-23-11 9:40 AM EST –

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/view/

The American Whitewater site has river information in addition to the USGS gauge data.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt