Provisional Data Information

Note: these USGS Illinois WSC real-time data web pages use an older interface and eventually will be replaced by the USGS national real-time data web pages located at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/il/nwis/rt. Please update any bookmarks to use the national real-time data pages. If you have any questions, please email gs-w-il_NWISWeb_Maintainer

Data from USGS raingages that provide real-time data are relayed to the USGS, Illinois District office in Urbana through telephone lines, radio telemetry, or the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data-collection system. Data are transmitted from each station at intervals of either 1 to 4 hours and are loaded onto the Illinois District computer system.

Real time data available on the Illinois Water Resources pages are provisional data that have not been reviewed or edited. National Weather Service (NWS) data available on the Illinois Water Resources pages have not been verified to be correct and as such are provisional and subject to revision. The data are released on the condition that neither the USGS nor the NWS may be held liable for any damages resulting from their use.

These data may contain significant errors and are not citeable until reviewed and approved by the U.S. Geological Survey. For example, precipitation data may have errors due to a malfunction of the sensing or recording equipment. Precipitation data collected at standard rain gages during cold weather can be affected by the accumulation of snow in the funnel of the gage. The snow is not recorded as precipitation until temperatures rise and the snow melts. The timing and volume of snow-affected data are subjected to appreciable errors and should not be used in modeling. Gages noted with heating elements melt snow upon falling in the funnel, giving a more accurately timed water equivalent of the snow amount. Errors in the water-equivalent snow data can still result, and therefore, the data should be used with caution.

Data users are cautioned to consider carefully the provisional nature of the data before basing decisions utilizing the data that concern personal or public safety or the conduct of business that involves substantial monetary or operational consequences.

Data are reviewed and corrected periodically to ensure accuracy. All data from station record is considered provisional until the data are published.

Information concerning the accuracy and appropriate uses of these data or concerning other hydrologic data may be obtained from:

John Latour
U.S. Geological Survey
221 N. Broadway
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 344-0037 ext. 3018
<jklatour@usgs.gov>

Go to the Illinois NWIS-W Data Retrieval page

Go to the Illinois Water Resources page

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Other states with USGS surface-water data retrieval pages

Comments and questions are welcome! Please email gs-w-il_NWIS-W_Data_Inquiries@usgs.gov.

Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Illinois Water Science Center
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This page was created in real time by the NWIS-W package: ( NWIS-W: 3.01pr ; API: 3.01 ; display: 3.0 )