WY-Adapt | Current Conditions

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Current Conditions

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Annual Differences

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Current Conditions

Dive into Wyoming's climate, presenting a real-time interactive map and a thirty-day data chart, spotlighting key metrics like streamflow, temperature, and snow pack.

Stream Gages

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Summary Stats Glossary

Summary

Stream Gages Summary

This visualization represents the proportion of stream gages visible on the map that are reporting flow or not, and dynamically updates as the map is panned and zoomed.

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Map Glossary

Data

Current Stream Flow Layer

This layer leverages data provided by the USGS, which collects water-resources data from approximately 1.9 million sites across the United States and territories. The USGS focuses on the occurrence, quantity, quality, distribution, and movement of surface and underground waters, making this data publicly accessible for water resource management. In our application, this layer marks the locations of streamflow stations on the map. Stations reporting active stream flow are indicated in blue, while stations with no flow are shown in gray. Users can click on any station point to view a detailed time series and additional information, contributing to an interactive streamflow summary chart that enhances understanding of current water conditions.

Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) Network

The Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) network is composed of over 900 automated data collection sites located in remote, high-elevation mountain watersheds in the western U.S. These sites collect observations based on the Water Year; beginning October 1, these stations report accumulated seasonal precipitation, snow water equivalent, and temperature (maximum, minimum, current, and average) daily.

In Wy-Adapt, we show current and recent SNOTEL observations in the Current Conditions app.

Synoptic Weather

This layer integrates the Synoptic Weather API—formerly the Mesonet API—to provide real-time temperature data across a global network of stations. It employs a RESTful API renowned for its speed and flexibility, allowing for the retrieval of data ranging from minutes to months. In our application, temperature points are color-coded on the map: blue represents the coldest temperatures in view, red indicates the hottest, and other colors signify intermediate temperatures. Clicking on a point reveals a time series and additional details about that location just below the map, offering users a comprehensive view of temperature fluctuations and context.

Map Controls

Layers

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Controls Glossary

Summary

Layer List Summary

This feature displays all available map visualizations. By default, all layers are visible. To toggle the visibility of a layer, click on its name. For more details about a layer, including its legend, click the actions button associated with it. Additionally, clicking directly on a point within the map will open the legend that corresponds to that location.

Time Series

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Chart Glossary

Parameter

Discharge

Discharge, often referred to as streamflow, quantifies the rate at which water flows through a river or stream channel. Specifically, it represents the volume of water passing a fixed point in the river or stream in a given time interval, most commonly measured in cubic feet per second (cfs).

Mathematically, this relationship is described as:

Where:

is the discharge or streamflow.
is the cross-sectional area of the water flow, typically in square feet or square meters. This area can change based on water levels and riverbed characteristics.
is the average velocity of the water, usually measured in feet per second or meters per second.

Regular monitoring of discharge is critical for water resource management, flood forecasting, and understanding the health of aquatic ecosystems. Stream gages are instrumental in providing this data, allowing for real-time monitoring and long-term analysis of river and stream systems.

Gage Height

Gage height, also known as stage, refers to the elevation of the water surface in a water body, measured from a predefined reference point. This reference point, where the gage reads zero, is set at an established altitude, often termed as the "zero level" or "datum." While this zero level is chosen arbitrarily, it is frequently positioned close to the streambed or bottom of the water body. Thus, the gage height essentially provides an indication of how high the water stands relative to this baseline, which can be especially crucial for understanding water flow dynamics, flood levels, or changes in water storage over time.

Precipitation

Precipitation encompasses all forms of water, whether in liquid or solid state, that descend from the atmosphere and make contact with the Earth's surface. This includes phenomena such as rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It's important to differentiate precipitation from dew, frost, and rime. While all are related to moisture, dew, frost, and rime are not classified as precipitation because they form directly from water vapor in the air condensing or freezing onto surfaces, rather than falling from the atmosphere.

Precipitation Accumulation

At a SNOTEL (SNOwpack TELemetry) site, precipitation accumulation is a comprehensive measurement that accounts for all forms of moisture received, whether it falls as rain or snow. Precipitation gauges at these sites are specifically designed to capture and quantify these inputs accurately. Over the course of a water year, which is defined from October 1st to September 30th, the precipitation gauge accumulates the total amount of moisture it receives. This accumulated value is of paramount importance to water resource managers, hydrologists, and meteorologists as it provides an integral view of the overall moisture input in a particular region. Monitoring the accumulated precipitation aids in assessing water availability, forecasting river flows, understanding seasonal changes, and preparing for potential flood or drought conditions. Additionally, in mountainous regions where snow is a major source of water, the combined measurement of rain and snowfall gives a clearer picture of the total water input into the system.

Time Aggregation

Time aggregation, in the context of data analysis, refers to the process of grouping and averaging data points over specific time intervals, such as hourly or daily increments. By aggregating data in this manner, fluctuations or noise in shorter time scales can be smoothed out, revealing broader trends and patterns. This technique is particularly useful when analyzing large datasets or when seeking to understand long-term changes or cycles, as it simplifies and consolidates the information into more manageable and interpretable units of time.

Other Terms

Confidence Interval (95%)

In WY-Adapt, when we aggregate sensor readings from stream gages and snotel sites, we provide 95% confidence intervals.

A 95% confidence interval is a range of values in which we are 95% confident that the true average reading, based on data from these sensors, lies within. The upper limit of the confidence interval represents the highest value we expect the true average to be, while the lower limit represents the lowest expected value. If the interval is wide, there's more uncertainty about where the true average lies; a narrower interval indicates greater confidence in our estimation.