U.S. River Conditions, April to June 2023

This is an animation showing the changing conditions relative to the historic record of USGS streamgages from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023. 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.   

The beginning of April saw atmospheric rivers that caused prolonged high waters in California and Nevada, while parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England saw low flow conditions. Concurrently, drought persisted in Florida and the South-Central U.S. As April ended, the Upper Midwest saw rapid snowmelt leading to flooding.  

May saw heavy rains that brought minor flooding to the Northeast, as well as prolonged flooding on the James River in South Dakota. Additionally, snowmelt flooding occurred in parts of Idaho and Nevada and flooding occurred along the Colorado Front Range. Typhoon Mawar caused flooding in Guam as May ended. 

June saw drought conditions that abated in Texas and spread in the Midwest. Concurrently, drought conditions built in parts of the mid-Atlantic as June came to a close.   

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.