Monitoring River Levels
Name: _________________________________ Date: _____________
Has it rained heavily where you live recently? If not, chances are it's rained somewhere in the nation this week. Although the actual flood danger varies greatly from state to state and season to season, heavy rains often raise the risk of both flash floods and river floods.
In this activity, you'll take a look at which parts of the country are currently at risk of flooding. You'll then explore the current flow of a river or stream near your home.
- To begin, take a look at today's United States flood map. What do the different colors on the map represent?
- Which parts of the country (if any) appear to be threatened with floods today?
- Visit the National Weather Service's Warnings and Forecasts. What color shows areas with flood warnings today?
- How closely do the warnings match your answer to question 2?
- Find out about recent Flash Flood Warnings. List all areas that received flash flood warnings.
- Visit the U.S. Geological Survey Real-Time Water Data page. Study the color-coded map. What color and percentile apply to waterways in your area?
- Click your state on the USGS map to see its Real Time Streamflow Data. You should now be looking at a color-coded streamflow map of your state. Describe what streamfow level each of the differntly colored dots of the map represents.
- Click on the colored-dot on the map of your state that's as close to where you live as possible. What is the name of the river or stream you selected?
- Study the discharge graph for your home river or stream. Based on the graph, what was the river's average discharge (in cubic feet per second) over the past seven days? Round to the nearest cubic foot.
- Scroll down the page for your river or stream to Daily Mean Flow Statistics. What's the current flow (1st column of table) of your river or stream?
- How does the current flow number compare to:
- flow minimum
- flow maximum
- flow mean
- flow minimum
