USGS Water Data APIs
USGS Water Data APIs publish data from our real-time sensor network, daily values aggregating those measurements, and metadata about monitoring locations and parameters measured, all in machine-readable formats tailored for programmers and applications. These APIs underpin the rest of USGS's water data delivery products, including Water Data for the Nation and the National Water Dashboard.
R and Python tools to work with Water Data APIs
The R-package dataRetrieval and the Python package dataretrieval simplify the process of finding and retrieving water from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and other agencies. The newest versions of dataRetrieval and dataretrieval work with the modernized Water Data APIs. Learn more about how USGS data scientists develop computational tools, such as dataRetrieval, to improve access to water data.
Legacy WaterServices will be decommissioned in early 2027
We have released these modernized Water Data APIs which will supersede the WaterServices family of APIs. The legacy WaterServices will be decommissioned in the first quarter of 2027. We will have more information about the decommission process, which may include intentional service degradation and blackouts, in the second half of 2026. We will not begin any intentional degradation of these services before August 2026.
Users of WaterServices, and systems that access data from WaterServices such as the dataretrieval packages for R and Python, will need to migrate their existing applications before this time to retain uninterrupted access to USGS water data. You will need to migrate any code or applications that make any requests to https://waterservices.usgs.gov/, any code that uses the readNWIS() family of functions in the R dataRetrieval package, or any code that uses the nwis module of the Python dataretrieval package. Read our WaterServices Decommissioning Blog post to learn more.
