Hydrologic Data Sources

By David R. Maidment

Center for Research in Water Resources

University of Texas at Austin

4 March 2010

USGS National Water Information System (NWIS)

General introduction http://water.usgs.gov/

Real time data (15 minute streamflow for last 31 days) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

Streamflow and lake level data (daily data up to the present) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/sw

Streamflow measurements (individual gagings at sites) http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/measurements

Peak flow data (floods) http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/peak

Groundwater data (observations on wells) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/gw

Water quality data (instantaneous measurements) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/qw

USGS Measurement sites (descriptive information on gaging, sampling sites on streams, wells) http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/inventory

Water Use (5 year estimates of water use by counties) http://water.usgs.gov/watuse/

Unit Values (15 min data historically).  http://ida.water.usgs.gov/ida/index_usgs.cfm?ncd=5 This service enables you to get streamflow data at 15 minute intervals.  Its very good for small sites where floods pass quickly and 15 minute data are much more instructive than daily data.

NHDPlus 1:100,000 GIS vector and raster data files for National Hydrography Dataset http://www.horizon-systems.com/nhdplus/ For tutorial on how to use NHDPlus and gage sites file, see http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2007/Ex5/Ex52007.doc

EPA Storet (Storage and Retrieval) system   http://www.epa.gov/storet/dw_home.html This site contains water quality and biological data collected to support the Clean Water Act.  Easy to use but has gaps in its coverage of the country (including Texas).

NCDC Climate Data Online   http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/CDO/cdo  Hourly, daily, monthly and annual weather and climate data at point observation sites. Tutorial on how to use Climate Data Online:

http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/gradhydro2005/docs/ncdcdata.doc

Ameriflux  http://public.ornl.gov/ameriflux/  Flux of water, heat and carbon between the land surface and atmosphere.

NCDC Radar Rainfall Archive and viewer http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/radar/radarresources.html

Nexrad data NEXRAD Stage III Precipitation data http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/hdsb/data/nexrad/nexrad.html  and procedures for using it http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hrl/dmip/nexrad.html

USDA NRCS National Water and Climate Center

General introduction http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/

Soil and Climate Analysis network http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/ Soil water balance at point locations

Snotel http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/ Snow data from individual sites

NOAA Soil Moisture Monitoring http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/soilmst/w.shtml

(maps produced from their numerical weather forecasting model)

NOAA Hydrometeorological Design Studies Center  http://www.weather.gov/oh/hdsc/currentpf.htm Precipitation frequency atlases for the United States

National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/ Maps of snow surveys and forecasts.

National Drought Mitigation Center http://drought.unl.edu/

Drought Monitor  http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html  Weekly drought severity maps

Texas Data Sources

TRACS water quality data for Texas (like EPA Storet but for Texas only) http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/compliance/monitoring/crp/data/samplequery.html

WIID Texas Water Information Integration and Dissemination (WIID) http://wiid.twdb.state.tx.us/ Well stratigraphy and water observations, water use forecasts, reservoir contents.

Gridded Weather and Climate Data

Daymet http://www.daymet.org/ NCAR Gridded historical climate in daily time steps for 1 km grid.  Can be queried by point locations.  Tutorial on Weather Downloader (an ArcGIS application that downloads weather data for point feature classes) http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/giswr2007/Ex6/Ex62007.doc

COMET http://www.comet.ucar.edu/ Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training – distance learning education about weather and climate

Numerical Weather Prediction Model descriptions and instructional tutorials http://www.meted.ucar.edu/nwp/pcu2/ (Requires a login) Describes variables calculated in different weather models.

NCEP National Centers for Environmental Prediction (numerical weather forecasting for the US) http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/products/  Definitions of variables in weather models: http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/docs/on388/

NCAR Community Data Portal http://cdp.ucar.edu/home/home.htm Research data from National Center for Atmospheric Research

NOMADS NOAA Operational Model Archive and Distribution System http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/  Access to historical weather model data

THREDDS http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/projects/THREDDS/ Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data Services – web services technology for weather and climate data

THREDDS data server at Unidata http://motherlode.ucar.edu:8080/thredds/catalog.html  Tutorial on how to use this server http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/GradHydro2007/docs/THREDDS.htm#unidata

THREDDS data server at NCDC

http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/thredds/catalog.html

Tutorial on how to use this server http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/GradHydro2007/docs/THREDDS.htm#ncdc

Remote Sensing Data

MOVAS http://g0dup05u.ecs.nasa.gov/Giovanni/ MODIS Online Visualization and Analysis System – NASA data from the MODIS satellite sensor

NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/ (includes new netCDF data products)

Coastal Data

NOAA Tides and Currents http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/

Tides Online http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov/ Data on current and historical tidal levels.  (6 min to monthly data at some locations)

TCOON (Texas Coastal Ocean Observing Network) http://lighthouse.tamucc.edu/TCOON/

TWDB Bay and Estuary data http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/DATA/bays_estuaries/bays_estuary_toc.asp

Global Data

GEMStat http://www.gemstat.org/ Global water quality data and statistics

WaterGap – world water resources and water use  http://grdc.bafg.de/servlet/is/1890/

Global Precipitation Climate Centre http://gpcc.dwd.de

Global Runoff Data Centre http://grdc.bafg.de/

CUAHSI Data Access Systems

CUAHSI HIS  http://his.cuahsi.org

HydroDesktop  http://www.hydrodesktop.org

HydroExcel  http://his.cuahsi.org/hydroexcel.html

HIS Central http://hiscentral.cuahsi.org