The next generation USGS Water Data Dashboard is here! After years of development and beta testing, the new site is live and open to public use. For religious users of the classic site, when you first pull up the new page, things can be a bit jarring. You’re greeted with a huge map with many multi-colored dots indicating USGS gauge locations. With a few clicks in the toolbar, most folks will figure out how to navigate the new tool with ease. However, for slower learners, it’s probably best to start familiarizing yourself with the new platform before the classic one disappears on Jan 1, 2023.
“Classic” View vs the New View
After playing around with the new tools and webpages a bit, we have some initial thoughts:
What We Like:
- The map view makes it easy to find the gauges closest and most relevant to the stretch of water we’d be fishing.
- If you hover your cursor over a site’s location on the map, a quick summary of the stream conditions will be pulled up.
- Additional layers like weather radar from the Nat’l Weather Service are nice touches.
- The new web pages are much easier to navigate on mobile.
What We Don’t Like:
- Navigating the map function can be a bit jarring at first until you filter out map layers to just the sites.
- It appears as though they have removed the historic average markers on gauge height, which were nice indicators of high-water or blown-out conditions.
