Upper Midwest Water Science Center

Groundwater Watch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and historical groundwater data from wells and springs across the United States. Groundwater Watch groups related wells and data from active well networks and provides basic statistics about the water-level data collected by the USGS and from data supplied to us from partners through cooperative agreements.

The USGS WaterNow service lets users receive current conditions for USGS water-data-collection stations on demand via email or cell-phone text message. The user sends an email or text message containing a USGS current-conditions gaging site number, and will quickly receive a reply with the station's most recent data for one or more of its monitored parameters.

The USGS provides real-time or near-real-time conditions water data at sites across the Nation. Current data typically are recorded at 15- to 60-minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events.

Real-time, daily, peak-flow, field measurements, and statistics of current and historical data that describe stream levels, streamflow (discharge), reservoir and lake levels, surface-water quality, and rainfall across the U.S. Surface-water data are collected and stored as either discrete field-water-level measurements or as continuous time-series data from automated recorders.

Chemical, physical, and biological properties of water, sediment, and tissue samples from across the U.S. Water-quality data are collected as either discrete field measurements or as continuous time-series data from automated recorders that continuously record physical and chemical characteristics including pH, specific conductance, temperature, and dissolved oxygen.