A state website makes it easy to keep an eye on possible flooding in Montana. A live map from Montana Disaster and Emergency Services uses stream gauges around the state to show flood stages as well as emergency declarations. (Click on the Floods 2022 tab).

Stream gauges are a frequent topic in the halls of the legislature and particularly of interest to the Water Policy Interim Committee and the Environmental Quality Council. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has a stream gauge working group.

A real-time reading from a stream gauge helps people plan for and react to flooding, but many others use them year round.  Gauges provide the basis for many water use decisions across Montana–when to turn water into fields, when to store water, when to fish or float, or when to stop using water.

Montana’s streams and rivers host to hundreds of stream gauges, such as: more than 200 gauges installed and (mostly) maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, 60 real-time and seasonal gauges of the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and 82 stations of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Other federal agencies, power companies, and water users groups also pitch in.