USGS Water Services
This site provides USGS water data in machine-readable formats via REST APIs, a common framework programs use to search and download data. The services below each provide a different type of data, ranging from instantaneous measurements of streamflow to information about individual USGS sites and more. The links below lead to documentation for how to use each service, and web forms to build queries for each endpoint.
Instantaneous Values Service
Retrieve current streamflow, gage height, and hundreds of other real-time data for one or multiple locations.
Statistics Service
Retrieve daily, monthly or annual statistics for sites. Statistics are provided on approved data only for time-series sites. Statistics are available for any parameter on these sites with approved data.
Groundwater Levels Service
Retrieve historical manually-recorded groundwater levels from hydrologic sites served by the USGS. (If you are looking to retrieve data for real-time or historical groundwater levels recorded on a regular basis using automated equipment, please use the instantaneous values web service.)
Site Service
The service allows searches for USGS sites and site information using a variety of flexible filters. Output formats include tab-delimited and KML formats (used with Google Earth and Google Maps).
Daily Values Service
Interested in historical summarized daily data about our nation's streams, lakes and wells? This service provides a wealth of historical water data. Daily data available for USGS water sites include mean, median, maximum, minimum, and/or other derived values.
Water Quality Services
The USGS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) each collect vast amounts of water quality data. A jointly developed web service allows you to retrieve data for millions of quality checked water quality samples and results.