U.S. River Conditions, July to September 2024

This is an animation showing the changing conditions relative to the historic record of USGS streamgages from July 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024. The river conditions shown range from the driest condition seen at a gage (red open circles) to the wettest (blue closed circles). A purple outer ring around a gage indicates it is flooding.   

In the beginning of July, low flows occurred in much of the Eastern U.S., while high flows occurred in the upper Midwest. Later in the month, Hurricane Beryl brought high water, Texas to the Midwest and Great Lakes.  

August saw Hurricane Debby brining flooding along much of the East Coast. Concurrently, drought conditions occurred in many parts of the U.S. As August came to a close, high pressure dried out much of the Eastern U.S. 

September brought wet conditions to much of the Eastern U.S as Hurricane Francine brought high water to the Gulf Coast and Potential Tropical Cyclone 8 wet much of the Mid-Atlantic. As September came to a close, Hurricane Helene brought record flooding. 

Note that both USGS gage height and National Weather Service flood stage are necessary to determine flooding conditions. The combination was available for 80% of streamgages at the time this graphic was produced. Only publicly available data from Water Data for the Nation were used (https://waterdata.usgs.gov/).