Texas Water Dashboard App From USGS

During the recent Texas flooding in April 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) introduced a new app that gives users real-time water, weather, and National Weather Service flood forecast information all in one place. When water levels are rising, it can be hard for people to quickly get all the information they need about their area.

The new USGS Texas Water Dashboard is a cutting-edge map that provides critical current water information and NWS forecast data for users, from a desktop, smartphone, or other mobile device. This is a first-generation product that brings real-time USGS data together in a web mashup with information from the NWS and other sources.

Texas floods
Screenshot of an area of the Texas Water Dashboard app

With this offering focused on conditions in Texas, the USGS will explore the potential value of this product to the public, and could possibly expand its reach to include the rest of the U.S. in the future.

The Texas Water Dashboard eliminates the need to search multiple sources for the latest information on floods and droughts. The app presents USGS real-time stream, lake and reservoir, precipitation, and groundwater data for more than 750 USGS real-time observation stations in the state of Texas. This USGS information is shown along with weather data such as radar, past precipitation totals, precipitation forecasts, and drought conditions from other sources.

“The Texas Water Dashboard provides a user-friendly ‘one-stop’ picture that is of extreme use to water resource managers, with the simplicity to be used by the general public,” said Mark Null, National Weather Service Hydrologist-In-Charge, West Gulf Coast River Forecast Center.