The gauge network
Thousands of stations, one live pulse.
One live pulse
A gauge is a promise: someone will read the river here, forever. Basin ties thousands of them into a single live feed, so a flood warning in one county can be seen forming three basins up.
The network
stations 12,482 and counting readings every 15 minutes, most sites uptime above 99.9%, last 90 days calibrate rating curves, checked monthly
Why it matters
A river has no spokesperson. The gauge is the closest thing it gets to a voice.