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USGS Groundwater Data for Montana

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Updated September 29, 2016 : USGS streamflow monitoring will be discontinued at the following sites effective November 1, 2016
  • 06295900 Rosebud Creek at Hwy 447 bridge near Rosebud, MT
  • 06307740 Otter Creek at Ashland, MT
  • 06307830 Tongue River below Brandenberg bridge near Ashland, MT UPDATE November 18, 2016 : Partner funding restored for site. USGS operation and maintenance will continue.
and at the following site effective October 1, 2017
  • 06307600 Hanging Woman Creek near Birney, MT
Currently, monitoring activities at these sites (map) are funded by a partner agency or jointly with the USGS through the Cooperative Water Program (http://water.usgs.gov/coop/). Lack of partner funding for these sites will result in discontinuation of all streamgaging activities. Questions or concerns can be directed to Kirk Miller (kmiller@usgs.gov; 307-775-9168) or Wayne Berkas (wrberkas@usgs.gov; 406-457-5903).

Current Conditions
(6 sites)

Current conditions at selected sites based on the most recent data from on-site automated recording equipment. Measurements are commonly recorded at a fixed interval of 15- to 60-minutes and transmitted to the USGS every hour. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision). Most current data are provisional.

Historical Observations
(13 sites)

The same data accessed by the Current Conditions link above but including both active and discontinued sites with data for any part of the period October 1, 2007, through the present. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision).

Daily Data
(38 sites)

Summary of all data for each day for the period of record and may represent the daily mean, median, maximum, minimum, and/or other derived value. Values may include "Approved" (quality-assured data that may be published) and/or more recent "Provisional" data (of unverified accuracy and subject to revision). Example.

Statistics
(33 sites)

Statistics are computed from approved daily mean data at each site. These links provide summaries of approved historical daily values for daily, monthly, and annual (water year or calendar year) time periods.

Field Measurements
(19,426 sites)
Manual measurements of depth to water in wells.
Introduction

The USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) contains extensive water data for the Nation. Public access to many of these data is provided via NWISWeb (additional background).

The Ground-Water database consists of more than 850,000 records of wells, springs, test holes, tunnels,drains, and excavations in the United States. Available site descriptive information includes well location information such as latitude and longitude, well depth, and aquifer.
The USGS annually monitors ground-water levels in thousands of wells in the United States. Ground-water level data are collected and stored as either discrete field-water-level measurements or as continuous time-series data from automated recorders. Data from some of the continuous record stations are relayed to USGS offices nationwide through telephone lines or by satellite transmissions providing access to realtime ground-water data. Once a complete day of readings are received from a site, daily summary data are generated and made available online. Annually, the USGS finalizes and publishes the daily data in a series of water-data reports.