USGS NWIS River Streamflow & Fishing Conditions Scraper

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Pulls real-time discharge, gage height, and water temperature from every active USGS stream gage in any US state. Returns one record per gage/parameter with site metadata, the latest instantaneous measurement, and a derived flow condition (low / normal / high).

Built for anglers, fishing guides, outfitters, and app developers who need a programmatic answer to "is this river fishable today?"

What It Does

Calls the USGS Water Services instantaneous-values (IV) API — a completely open federal dataset, no API key required — and returns structured records for every active stream gage in the requested states.

Parameters collected:

• 00060 — Discharge / streamflow (cubic feet per second)
• 00065 — Gage height (feet)
• 00010 — Water temperature (°C)

Flow condition derivation (for discharge only): based on USGS qualifier codes present in each measurement. > = exceeds upper reliable measurement range → high; < = below lower range → low; normal provisional/approved reads return blank (no extreme condition detected).

Input

Example — Colorado discharge only:

{
"stateCodes":["CO"],
"parameterCodes":["00060"],
"maxItems":100
}

Example — Full trout-fishing pack (all 50 states, all three parameters):

{
"stateCodes":[],
"parameterCodes":["00060","00065","00010"]
}

Output

One record per gage/parameter combination.

Example record:

{
"site_no":"06752000",
"site_name":"CACHE LA POUDRE RIV AT CANYON MOUTH NR FT COLLINS, CO",
"state_code":"08",
"county_code":"08069",
"latitude":"40.67676",
"longitude":"-105.14241",
"parameter_code":"00060",
"parameter_name":"Streamflow, ft3/s",
"measurement_datetime":"2026-05-21T10:00:00.000-06:00",
"value":"312",
"unit":"ft3/s",
"qualifiers":"P",
"flow_condition":"",
"source_url":"https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=06752000&agency_cd=USGS&parameterCd=00060&period=P7D",
"scraped_at":"2026-05-21T16:15:03.000Z"
}

Use Cases

• Fishing trip planning — query discharge and temperature for a specific state before heading out
• River fishing apps — feed real-time gage data into a "fishability" score
• Outfitter dashboards — monitor multiple rivers across a region simultaneously
• Research / conservation — time-series analysis of flow conditions across gage networks
• Alert systems — detect high-flow or low-flow conditions for float trip scheduling

Notes

• Coverage: ~8,000-10,000+ active stream gages nationwide. Colorado alone has ~356 discharge gages.
• Freshness: USGS IV data is typically updated every 15 minutes.
• No API key required: USGS Water Services is a free federal open-data service.
• Rate limits: USGS requests polite use. The actor uses a 200ms delay between state requests.
• Full-country run: Scraping all 50 states with all three parameters returns ~50,000-80,000 records. Use maxItems to cap output for quick queries.