U.S. River Conditions, January to March 2023

This is an animation showing the changing conditions relative to the historic record of USGS streamgages from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 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.   

Drought conditions persisted in parts of South Central U.S., such as Oklahoma and Texas, from January to March.  

January brought high flows in the Northeast U.S., as well as atmospheric rivers that caused flooding to the West Coast and Southwest U.S.  

The beginning of February brought frontal systems that caused high water to parts of the Eastern U.S. such as Georgia and South Carolina.  

Towards the beginning of March, atmospheric rivers brought additional flooding to the West Coast and Southwest U.S. The end of the month brought low flows in the Florida peninsula, as well as a strong frontal system that brought flooding to the Midwest. 

Note that both USGS gage height and National Weather Service flood stage levels are necessary to determine flooding conditions and were available for 38% of streamgages at the time this graphic was produced. Only publicly available data from the National Water Information System Website was used and some gages are missing gage height even when they have flow.