How to follow water-flow information on your favorite rivers

Here in southern New England we have been deluged with rain over the past week.  At times like this I find it important to study water flow information from the federal government's Web site before heading out.  Below, for example, is the current status of the Millers River in Erving, MA.  I fished it last Friday (May 13) when it was below my self-imposed threshhold of 500 cfs (cubic feet per second).  As you can see, today, a week later things are quite different, with water flow at about 1,500 cfs.  That's unfishable.

If you'd like to find out how your river is doing, just go to http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt.

rt= real time data.  You will get on your monitor a page that looks like the image below.  It's fun to see what other parts of the country are doing.  New England is wet (blue and black dots), and across the south things look below normal (red dots).

(Note: The image below is a screenshot and is not active.  It is not click-able.)

Once you get this page up on your computer using the link above, just click on your state to get to your state-specific page. You'll be able to negotiate your way from there.  Each dot is a different river location.