USGS site

[dryflyguy]

For the first time since last fall, I got on it to check stream levels.
And saw that's it been changed a bit,

Used to just go to current PA stream conditions.
And they all came up, listed and sorted by the different water sheds.
Pretty easy to scroll down to the one I wanted, click and check

Now its just a map, with blue dots for each gauge station
No county designations.
And the dots dont show which gauge it is, until you click on it.
And I have to zoom in to guess if its what I want

Making it harder to use IMO
At least in my old mind

Unless there's something else I'm missing here?

 

[afishinado]

For the first time since last fall, I got on it to check stream levels.
And saw that's it been changed a bit,

Used to just go to current PA stream conditions.
And they all came up, listed and sorted by the different water sheds.
Pretty easy to scroll down to the one I wanted, click and check

Now its just a map, with blue dots for each gauge station
No county designations.
And the dots dont show which gauge it is, until you click on it.
And I have to zoom in to guess if its what I want

Making it harder to use IMO
At least in my old mind

Unless there's something else I'm missing here?

I don't believe you are missing anything DFG.........it sucks!!!!

 

[dudemanspecial]

Agreed, it's frustrating to navigate.

 

[Nocktavius]

I’d love to see stream gauges get privatized (hell I know id pay for a premium version that has precip, water temps, turbidity, and monitoring locations actually located in the correct stretches - looking at you Penns creek). So many millions of dollars of revenue streams are dependent upon these things and as is they barely provide basic info.

 

[lars]

i've resorted to keeping individual bookmarks for the gages i frequent.
definitely preferred the old set up.

 

[TerrellBFly]

I dont use the map. I just google USGS + creek name and pick the gauge that I am looking for. From there, just bookmark the page and you can come back as necessary.

 

[afishinado]

i've resorted to keeping individual bookmarks for the gages i frequent.
definitely preferred the old set up.

While not like the old site at all, you can bookmark a "favorites" list of streams/rivers rather than bookmark individual gages.

 

[Bamboozle]

I bookmarked the gauges I refer to the most and have those bookmarks categorized by region in folders.

I've been doing this way for at least two decades so I never noticed much of a difference.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Board,

I kind of miss the olden days when you could call the SRBC 800 number, and they would read off the gauge heights and flow rates for every station in the Susquehanna drainage basin.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[lycoflyfisher]

With staffing reductions and funding cuts at usgs, NOAA, etc I would not expect any increase in data availability or improvement in the website. Hopefully the exisiting gages and availability of data will be maintained.

 

[dryflyguy]

I did notice the favorites feature, which I'll have to do.
But there are still times when I want to look up new streams, or ones that I dont fish very often

 

[dryflyguy]

I’d love to see stream gauges get privatized (hell I know id pay for a premium version that has precip, water temps, turbidity, and monitoring locations actually located in the correct stretches - looking at you Penns creek). So many millions of dollars of revenue streams are dependent upon these things and as is they barely provide basic info.

The Little J only has one USGS gauge station - at spruce creek.
But there was another gauge installed upstream, above Tyrone I believe, rather recently.
I first read about it on this site, and checked it out once
But I cant recall who it was put there by, and maintains it

 

[bringthepain]

With staffing reductions and funding cuts at usgs, NOAA, etc I would not expect any increase in data availability or improvement in the website. Hopefully the exisiting gages and availability of data will be maintained.

Since the current version is the improvement and its already implemented i would say no changes were coming either way and that funding cuts, staffing reductions have no bearing. Were there plans to add additional upgrades prior to whatever changes were made?

 

[dudemanspecial]

I’d love to see stream gauges get privatized (hell I know id pay for a premium version that has precip, water temps, turbidity, and monitoring locations actually located in the correct stretches - looking at you Penns creek). So many millions of dollars of revenue streams are dependent upon these things and as is they barely provide basic info.

Honest question here...... Is there anything stopping this from occurring? Is there any kind of regulation preventing a company to put in their own gauges and monetize it? I would think if there is a market for such a thing it would have occured, unless of course its not allowed.

 

[lars]

the favorite option kinda sucks imo

 

[Nocktavius]

Honest question here...... Is there anything stopping this from occurring? Is there any kind of regulation preventing a company to put in their own gauges and monetize it? I would think if there is a market for such a thing it would have occured, unless of course its not allowed.

An interesting question, a potential business opportunity (Presenting USGS Plus brought to you by Orvis, TCO, and Trout Routes), and a likely hand-wavey explanation from the federal government as to why this isn't legal/possible.

Maybe the PFBC could cut back on the stocking program and spend money on stuff like this to support existing wild fish populations and encourage responsible angling. [And then I woke up from my IPA-induced stupor]

 

[albatross]

The Little J only has one USGS gauge station - at spruce creek.
But there was another gauge installed upstream, above Tyrone I believe, rather recently.
I first read about it on this site, and checked it out once
But I cant recall who it was put there by, and maintains it

@dryflyguy I found the site, but it seems the gage at Tipton went offline Sep2024. A shame to lose this resource. I liked that there was a temp gage there.

The old thread you mention is here: https://www.paflyfish.com/threads/little-juniata-river-temperature-guage-offline.49242/

 

[lars]

for the time being the national water prediction sites are still good

Penns Creek at Penns Creek

water.noaa.gov

 

[Kms]

I posted about the rivers.run iPhone app before, which is tailored for paddlers but works just as well for our purposes.

‎rivers.run

‎Rivers.run provides water levels, water temperature, and other information, using data collected from over 12,000 gauges. It matches this information with crowdsourced paddling expertise to tell you what a river height actually means, and to provide skill level estimates. You can use GPS...

apps.apple.com

The interface is clunky but workable and allows you to search and filter by name, state and distance

… and to save results as favorites.

A tap on a stream shows last week’s data and a direct link to the USGS site for more info.

 

[dryflyguy]

@dryflyguy I found the site, but it seems the gage at Tipton went offline Sep2024. A shame to lose this resource. I liked that there was a temp gage there.

View attachment 1641240418

The old thread you mention is here: https://www.paflyfish.com/threads/little-juniata-river-temperature-guage-offline.49242/

That's too bad
Thanks Greg