What happened to USGS?

[Troutmeister]

I was looking for some info on stream flows this morning. Streams that came up with cfs measurements before now come up and instantly switch to some other page with only the gate height showing. Gate height means nothing to me. Anybody else notice this? Is there some tab or something I'm missing to get back to the original page with cfs and in many cases temperature?

 

[afishinado]

I was looking for some info on stream flows this morning. Streams that came up with cfs measurements before now come up and instantly switch to some other page with only the gate height showing. Gate height means nothing to me. Anybody else notice this? Is there some tab or something I'm missing to get back to the original page with cfs and in many cases temperature?

My guess is, since the USGS is changing over to a new format at the end of this year, they are priming users to see how the new format looks. I agree, it sucks. But that's "progress"........

 

[phiendWMD]

There are buttons to select the different parameters now. They are located toward the bottom of the page. I also agree the new appearance is a step backwards.

Using an app that harvests data from USGS and displays it in a more favorable manner is probably the best solution.

 

[Nympho]

Look below the chart and click on Discharge and you will get the CFS.

 

[krayfish2]

Kinda like it but it'll have to grow on me for sure. I'm not sure you'll be able to enter dates for a specific range though.

 

[falcon]

Don't like it. I used to be able to see CFS and Temp at one time. Now you have to choose each display. The print is small also

 

[Troutmeister]

Ok, I see you have to click on discharge and then todays data. Thanks guys.

 

[Mike]

Not sure what you are referring to. I went to my usual location and it looked the same to me. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/current/?type=flow

 

[silverfox]

I like the new format. I also like the format of the subscription emails.

If you aren't aware, if you select the gage height or CFS discharge graph (any measured parameter), under the graph, you'll see a link to "subscribe to alerts". Create an account on USGS with your email and then set the range for alerts between 0 (zero) and some insanely high upper range limit for any station you want daily emails on. I get eight a day, and they all come in simultaneously. It's nice to constantly know what my favorite streams are running at without going to the site. I'm a super nerd, though, and I'm sure not everyone wants or needs to know what river X is running at every day. Just thought I'd throw this out there.

 

[falcon]

Not sure what you are referring to. I went to my usual location and it looked the same to me. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/current/?type=flow

When you click on a specific river the new format appears. They try to change something that's not broke.

 

[wgmiller]

Gate height means nothing to me.

Couldn't agree more. If I was a boater, gauge height might mean something, but when it comes to wading, it's all about CFS to me!

Looks like they upgraded their software that processes waterway data. It is a little different to interface with it, but overall a lot cleaner than the previous version.

 

[Canoetripper]

I am good with the new format, but agree that something that was never broke in the first place was fixed.

I can still get all of the information from the Tobyhanna gauge that I used to get and need.

#1 is the CFS. #2 is the water temperature in degrees F. #'s 3 & 4 are the gauge height in feet and recent rainfall. That is all the information that I need before I hit the road for a western Pocono fishing trip.

 

[phiendWMD]

Couldn't agree more. If I was a boater, gauge height might mean something, but when it comes to wading, it's all about CFS to me!

Looks like they upgraded their software that processes waterway data. It is a little different to interface with it, but overall a lot cleaner than the previous version.

IMO, gauge height is most useful for water without a USGS station reading CFS. I'd much rather see temperature on the USGS page.

If I told my boater friends what the Lehigh was running in gauge height, almost every single one of them would look at me like I was speaking Latin and ask what the CFS was.

 

[GeneBeam]

My guess is, since the USGS is changing over to a new format at the end of this year, they are priming users to see how the new format looks. I agree, it sucks. But that's "progress"........

Reorganizing is a Wonderful Method for Creating the Illusion of Progress while Actually Producing Confusion, Inefficiency, and Demoralization.​

 

[silverfox]

A few things to consider... They've been warning about this for a long time.

The legacy sites have to be putting unnecessary load on the server infrastructure. The legacy pages basically generated a .gif image for each station's parameter. That .gif image gets served up anytime someone requests the page. The entire page design was a simple table with text and images pulled from a database. That load has to be insane, and the infrastructure required to run it immense.

The new pages use a modern design and generate the graphs on the fly with browser rendering based on the data. Basically it offloads making the graphs on the end user's browser rather than server-side hardware. I'm sure this all saves the agency (US taxpayers) a lot of money and allows USGS to focus spending that money on core mission activities.

I don't think this is just changing things for the sake of changing things by any stretch of the imagination.

monitoring location pages

waterdata.usgs.gov

USGS Water Data News — USGS Water Data for the Nation Help System

help.waterdata.usgs.gov

FAQ for Next Generation Monitoring Location Pages

All your commonly asked questions about the modernization of NWISWeb's real-time pages to WDFN's Next Generation Monitoring Location pages.

waterdata.usgs.gov

1. I think the old website works fine, why do you feel the need to change it?​

The old website has served the public well, but it is 25 years old—that’s about 80% of the entire history of the World Wide Web! Over the last 10 years, we have observed declining user satisfaction with the old website; novice users in particular tell us the legacy pages are challenging to understand and not intuitive to use. Under the hood, the programming has become outdated and has become difficult to maintain and it is practically impossible to add new features. The best way for us to serve the public well into the future is to modernize our pages.

 

[phiendWMD]

Kinda like it but it'll have to grow on me for sure. I'm not sure you'll be able to enter dates for a specific range though.

At the top of the page, there is a tab labeled change time span where you can enter dates.

 

[Mike]

Reorganizing is a Wonderful Method for Creating the Illusion of Progress while Actually Producing Confusion, Inefficiency, and Demoralization.​

Beautiful quote….not saying it applies here, but there are plenty of opportunities to use it in government.

 

[fritz]

I was just looking at the new format again. It seems like it defaults to height. It can be easily changed to flow. It looks like two parameters can be displayed. "compare to last year" can also be displayed on the real time graph. That is interesting for me to look at. Median flows can also be displayed. You can scroll across the graph and see the digital response in time and flows for the past week or whatever time frame you want to display. Numbers are displayed upper left.

Overall, the more I play with it, the more I like it.

 

[silverfox]

I was just looking at the new format again. It seems like it defaults to height. It can be easily changed to flow. It looks like two parameters can be displayed. "compare to last year" can also be displayed on the real time graph. That is interesting for me to look at. Median flows can also be displayed. You can scroll across the graph and see the digital response in time and flows for the past week or whatever time frame you want to display. Numbers are displayed upper left.

Overall, the more I play with it, the more I like it.

I like that there's an interactive map you can pan/zoom around to find other monitoring stations nearby. I also like the "compare to last year" option. I think it looks and functions better on a mobile phone too.

 

[PAFLYBOY]

On the new format, if you look just under the stream name, you will see a link to the Legacy Real Time Page. I'm not sure how long that will remain available, though...