How to Read a USGS Gauge Page Yourself

We do the interpreting for you, but it’s worth knowing how to read the raw source. Every section page links straight to its USGS monitoring-location page. Here’s what you’re looking at.

The current reading

At the top you’ll find the most recent values: discharge in cubic feet per second (parameter 00060) and often gauge height in feet (00065), each with a timestamp. This is the “right now” number our verdict compares against the section’s runnable range. If it says a value is provisional, that’s normal — real-time data hasn’t been quality-reviewed yet.

The hydrograph

Below the numbers is the hydrograph — a chart of flow over the past days or weeks. This is the most valuable part. Its shape tells you the story a single number can’t:

• Flat line — steady; today looks like yesterday.
• Rising line — the river is coming up. Be cautious; rising rivers keep rising.
• Falling line — dropping back toward normal, often the sweet spot after rain.
• Staircase — a dam-controlled river responding to releases (see dam releases).

Context: how does today compare?

USGS pages often show statistics — the median flow for this day of the year, and percentiles. If today’s flow is far above the normal for the date, the river is high; far below, it’s low. This is the same idea behind our conservative, percentile-based estimated ranges — see the methodology.

Putting it together

Read the current value, then read the hydrograph’s shape, then compare to the seasonal normal. That’s the whole skill. Our section pages package all three into one verdict and a shaded trend chart, but now you can verify any of it at the source. New to the units? Start with CFS and gauge height explained, and always finish with the safety guide.