USGS updates

Rusty Spinner · Apr 16, 2013

For those of you that care about and frequently check various USGS gauges, here was an email announcement about numerous upgrades coming our way. It's a bit long, but there was no link, just a huge email. There may be some weird stuff going on with certain gauges during this upgrade period:

 Subject: Notification of upcoming changes to waterdata.usgs.gov and waterservices.usgs.gov

To the public: you are receiving this because you or someone at this email address subscribed to the USGS Water Data for the Nation notification list. If you are no longer interested in receiving system notifications, go tohttp://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/help/help?form=email
and select the unsubscribe option.

Beginning Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 the USGS will begin deploying a minor release of the USGS Water Data for the Nation web site. There are many servers that need to be updated, so the process may take a couple of days. During this time period you may see an inconsistent user interface, as some servers are updated while others are not.

*
**USGS Water Data for the Nation (waterdata.usgs.gov) * **New plot multiple parameters for a site features dynamic graphs* Data for up to three parameters for a site can now be plotted on the same graph. For example, you could compare streamflow, gage height and water temperature for the same site on the same graph. This new feature works with both instantaneous values and daily values data. It is accessible as a new output format on a station page.

Simply pick up to three available parameters then pick the "Graph w/(up
to) 3 parms"radio button, such as discharge, gage height and water temperature. You may also choose a different data range than the default, which is the most recent seven days.

This new feature also introduces a new graphic format for the site.
These graphs are dynamic graphs, created in your browser instead of downloaded as a static image.
+ You can turn on or off parameters of interest and these features will appear or disappear from the graph instantly. No page refresh is needed.
+ You can narrow or expand the time range of interest in the graphing window by dragging your mouse over the period of interest in the graph.
+ Tool tips and provisional data periods can be dynamically enabled and disabled

A full tutorial will be published soon.

* Bug fixes
* Peaks load correctly and are displayed reflecting DST time change
* Added "WA = Air moisture" to USGS/EPA mapping object
* Fixed social media message that occured only in Firefox when date range exceeded most recent 120 days.
* Latitude/longitude input box now allows latitudes or longitudes to be one or two characters.
* On station pages, if you enter a start or end date, these dates are remembered when the page is subsequently refreshed, rather than reverting to the default.
* Discrete measurements now appear on tab-separated (RDB) output for Guam and Hawaiian sites
* Fixed inconsistent wording on Springs with Aquifers
* Revised Water Use text

* New parameters
o 51185 - Nitrate, water, unfiltered, field, milligrams per liter
o 51186 - Inorganic nitrogen, water, dissolved, calculated as
NH3+NO2+NO3, milligrams per liter as nitrogen
o 51187 - Inorganic nitrogen, water, dissolved, calculated as
NH3+NO2+NO3, tons per day as nitrogen
o 72223 - Soil water matric potential, bars
o 72224 - Extinction reference absorbance, absorbance units per centimeter
o 72225 - Extinction measurement absorbance, absorbance units per centimeter
o 80297 - Suspended sediment load, water, unfiltered, computed
o 91061 - Nitrate plus nitrite, water, dissolved, pounds per day as nitrogen
o 99133 - NO3+NO2,water,insitu
o 99404 - Chloride, wf, estimated
o 99064 - Water surface elevation difference between two locations, feet
*
***Help system (help.waterdata.usgs.gov)* *
* Fixed some missing or incorrect links on the output formats page
* Added wireline measurement to the water level method codes.
*
***Mapper (maps.waterdata.usgs.gov)* *
* When downloading data in Keyhole Markup Language (KML), a .kml file suffix is used instead of a .xml suffix. This makes these files more likely to open in geographic-based applications such as Google Earth.
*
***Water Services (waterservices.usgs.gov)* *
* The number of parameters codes supported by the groundwater levels web service has been increased from five to eleven. This change better supports new vertical datums that are in the Pacific. The new parameter codes are:
1. 72226 - Groundwater level above American Samoa Datum of 1962 (retired in 2001), feet
2. 72227 - Groundwater level above American Samoa Vertical Datum of 2002, feet
3. 72228 - Groundwater level above Guam Vertical Datum of 1963(retired in 2003), feet
4. 72229 - Groundwater level above Guam Vertical Datum of 2004, feet
5. 72230 - Groundwater level above Local Hawaiian Datum, feet
6. 72231 - Groundwater level above Northern Marianas Vertical Datum of 2003, feet)

* Clarified documentation to state that there are millions of groundwater levels, not millions of groundwater sites (PR 28795)
* Added a link to the groundwater levels service description on the site's main page.
* Code was added to GWLevels.pm to enable the plotting of "L" and "S"
measurements provided the vertical datum of the "S" measurements matches the vertical datum of the site.

--
Candice Bostwick
NWISWeb Operations Team Lead
(703)648-4878
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SS_Trout · Apr 16, 2013

Steam temp, not bad USGS
Thanks for posting this.

Thursthouse · Apr 16, 2013

If you don't use/check USGS prior to hitting the water you really should. It's so simple and can save you a trip if the water levels are too high/low for effective fishing.

Rusty Spinner · Apr 16, 2013

I have alerts set up for certain parameters on certain rivers including, of course, the Musky at flood stage. There's so much you can do with USGS information and a smart phone! I'd like to get TU to add a temp gauge on the Musky at Bloomsbury one of these years...but it's not cheap as I recall.

SS_Trout · Apr 16, 2013

Rusty Spinner said:
I have alerts set up for certain parameters on certain rivers including, of course, the Musky at flood stage. There's so much you can do with USGS information and a smart phone! I'd like to get TU to add a temp gauge on the Musky at Bloomsbury one of these years...but it's not cheap as I recall.

Where can you find out which rivers will have the temp gauge?

Rusty Spinner · Apr 16, 2013

SS_Trout said:
Where can you find out which rivers will have the temp gauge?

Here are two rivers, one with and one without the temps:

USGS Current Conditions for USGS 01426500 WEST BRANCH DELAWARE RIVER AT HALE EDDY NY
USGS Current Conditions for USGS 01457000 Musconetcong River near Bloomsbury NJ

I'm not sure if there is a list with stations having or not having the temp gauge or not. Most do not, that much I do know. But when they do like with the Hale Eddy gauge on the WBD, it will be obvious.

Petergoodman · Apr 22, 2013

Definitely check the gauges, but also the weather upsteam (not just where you are going) - a couple of years ago before driving the 2 hrs needed to get to Roscoe, checked the guage at Cooks Falls and everyting looked great, so hit the highway. Driving along the Quickway, Willoweamoc looked nice. On arriving in Roscoe, however the Beaverekill looked like chocolate milk - seemed that the Upper BK had a microburst of a couple inches of rain that morning - no such rain on the Willow - so the BK was unfishable, and the Willow was actually low and clear. So now I check the Accuweather radar as well before getting into the car. By the way, because of the BK water conditions, locals apaprently decided not to leave work that day - so had the Willow to myself, and did well as I recall.

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