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Geo · US

USGS Water Services

waterservices.usgs.gov

US streamflow, gage height and groundwater readings from the National Water Information System, live and historical.

Showing the catalogue

1Request

USGS monitoring location id in agency-prefixed form, AGENCY-SITENO. The example is the Potomac River near Washington DC (Little Falls Pump Station).

Five-digit USGS parameter code: 00060 discharge in ft3/s, 00065 gage height in ft, 00010 water temperature in C, 00095 specific conductance.

RFC 3339 instant or an open or closed interval written start/end, e.g. 2026-09-01/2026-09-30 or 2026-09-01/..

1 credit⌘ ↵
Code follows the fields above
curl "https://api.fastcrw.com/v1/data/usgswater/continuous?monitoring_location_id=USGS-01646500&limit=100&offset=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTCRW_API_KEY"

2Response example

A sample shape. Press Run to see live data from USGS Water Services.

JSON
{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "time_series_id": "400b3b19db09443da982418ceda360a6",
        "monitoring_location_id": "USGS-01646500",
        "parameter_code": "63160",
        "statistic_id": "00011",
        "time": "2025-10-21T02:45:00+00:00",
        "value": "39.81",
        "unit_of_measure": "ft",
        "approval_status": "Approved",
        "qualifier": null,
        "last_modified": "2026-05-27T17:53:24.310282+00:00",
        "method_category": "UNKWN"
      },
      "id": "2e7d1204-9007-478a-801d-06defb7bf91a",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          -77.12763888888888,
          38.949777777777776
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "time_series_id": "400b3b19db09443da982418ceda360a6",
        "monitoring_location_id": "USGS-01646500",
        "parameter_code": "63160",
        "statistic_id": "00011",
        "time": "2025-10-21T02:50:00+00:00",
        "value": "39.82",
        "unit_of_measure": "ft",
        "approval_status": "Approved",
        "qualifier": null,
        "last_modified": "2026-05-27T17:53:24.310282+00:00",
        "method_category": "UNKWN"
      },
      "id": "32d1c030-2d1b-4a32-a8ff-032ff0a6b400",
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          -77.12763888888888,
          38.949777777777776
        ]
      }
    },
    "… 98 more items"
  ],
  "numberReturned": 100,
  "links": [
    {
      "rel": "next",
      "href": "https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/ogcapi/v1/collections/continuous/items?cursor=NDAwYjNiMTlkYjA5NDQzZGE5ODI0MThjZWRhMzYwYTZ8MjAyNS0xMC0yMSAxMTowMDowMCswMDowMA&monitoring_location_id=USGS-01646500&limit=100&f=json",
      "type": "application/geo+json",
      "title": "Items (next)"
    },
    {
      "type": "application/geo+json",
      "rel": "self",
      "title": "This document as GeoJSON",
      "href": "https://api.waterdata.usgs.gov/ogcapi/v1/collections/continuous/items?f=json&monitoring_location_id=USGS-01646500&limit=100"
    },
    "… 4 more items"
  ],
  "timeStamp": "2026-10-21T02:42:07.613816Z"
}

Attribution: Source: U.S. Geological Survey, National Water Information System

Licence: A work of the United States Government, not subject to copyright protection in the United States (17 U.S.C. 105). USGS water data is in the public domain.

Ask with this source

A prompt for your agent that names this source and how to call it through the crw MCP.

  • Continuous value history

    Use USGS Water Services (usgswater) from fastCRW Pergamon, capability "Continuous value history" (continuous). You want the raw sub-daily sensor history for a gauge from the current OGC API rather than the legacy WaterML service. Example options: monitoring_location_id=USGS-01646500, parameter_code=00060, datetime=2026-09-01/2026-09-30. Use the crw MCP tools: crw_find_data to confirm the source and its options, then crw_get_data with provider "usgswater" and capability "continuous". Tell me the credits used and cite the licence from the response. If the crw MCP tools are missing, install them with: npx -y crw-mcp install --api-key <your fastCRW API key>

  • Daily values

    Use USGS Water Services (usgswater) from fastCRW Pergamon, capability "Daily values" (daily). You want a day-by-day history for a gauge rather than raw sensor readings. Example options: sites=01646500, parameterCd=00060, startDT=2026-09-01. Use the crw MCP tools: crw_find_data to confirm the source and its options, then crw_get_data with provider "usgswater" and capability "daily". Tell me the credits used and cite the licence from the response. If the crw MCP tools are missing, install them with: npx -y crw-mcp install --api-key <your fastCRW API key>

  • Field measurements

    Use USGS Water Services (usgswater) from fastCRW Pergamon, capability "Field measurements" (fieldmeasurements). You want the hand-measured calibration readings behind a gauge's rating curve, not its continuous sensor record. Example options: monitoring_location_id=USGS-01646500, parameter_code=00060, datetime=2026-09-01/2026-09-30. Use the crw MCP tools: crw_find_data to confirm the source and its options, then crw_get_data with provider "usgswater" and capability "fieldmeasurements". Tell me the credits used and cite the licence from the response. If the crw MCP tools are missing, install them with: npx -y crw-mcp install --api-key <your fastCRW API key>

  • Instantaneous values (real-time)

    Use USGS Water Services (usgswater) from fastCRW Pergamon, capability "Instantaneous values (real-time)" (instantaneous). You want the current or last-few-days readings from a specific USGS gauge. Example options: sites=01646500, parameterCd=00060,00065, period=P1D. Use the crw MCP tools: crw_find_data to confirm the source and its options, then crw_get_data with provider "usgswater" and capability "instantaneous". Tell me the credits used and cite the licence from the response. If the crw MCP tools are missing, install them with: npx -y crw-mcp install --api-key <your fastCRW API key>