Great Plains Region

Instructions on How to Use the ARCPLT Plotting Program

ARCPLT is a plotting routine that will allow the users to view daily historical data residing in the HYDROMET database. The program allows the users the opportunity to view a data for a year, a month, a week or a day.

The Bureau of Reclamation HYDROMET database stores all of the data in a WATER YEAR format. A water year begins on October 1^st of any year and ends on September 30^th of the following year, example - Water year 1997 includes data from October 1, 1996 through September 30, 1997. Keep this in mind when requesting data.

In the Beginning Month, Beginning Day, Ending Month, ending Day, line, enter the appropriate time period you wish to display. The default is an standard water year, October 1^st through September 30^th. The dates MUST fall within a single water year.

In the next set of columns, you can request a number of data items. They may be for one or reservoirs, or one or more data sets.

Under Station (1), input the reservoir code for the state on interest. Reservoir codes can be found at the bottom of the current reservoir data page or if you do not know the code, view a listing of all of the reservoir codes. TAB to the next box or move the CURSOR. Hitting the ENTER at this point will cause the program to malfunction and no data will be retrieved.

Under Parameter (1), input the parameter code of interest. View a listing of all available parameter codes for all reservoirs.

Under Year, type in the 4 digit water year.

Repeat the preceding steps for the other five columns.

Once all the data has been placed into the appropriate columns, select the SUBMIT button and the data will be plotted.

The Vertical Plot Scale Limits provide an avenue to resize the plot. It is suggested that these values are not modified. The plot will automatically size to fit the data requested.