INTERNET ASSIGNMENT ON STREAMFLOW & RAINFALL PATTERNS

Guidelines for the writeup are on the last page

(due on or before 10/22 - no late writeups accepted)

 

  1. All of the active stream gages in California monitored by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are on the USGS web site, water.usgs.gov/nsip/nsipmaps/ca_base.html.  Each of the dots signifies a stream gage.  Move the cursor over the stream gage dot to see the location.  Click on the appropriate dot to see the web page for that stream gage.  Select a San Diego stream gage from the list to evaluate (DO NOT USE THE CAMPO CREEK AS IT IS THE EXAMPLE):

 

San Diego R at Fashion Valley

Jamul C near Jamul, CA

Sweetwater R near Descanco, CA

San Diego R at Mast Rd near Santee, CA

Santa Ysabel C near Ramona, CA

Las Flores C near Oceanside, CA

De Luz C near De Luz, CA

Fallbrook C near Fallbrook, CA

San Mateo C near San Clemente, CA

Santa Margarita R at Ysidora, CA

Murrieta C at Temecula, CA

Los Penasquitos C at Poway, CA

Los Coches C near Lakeside, CA

 

  1. Click on the dot for the gage to view the web page

Record the stream gage number and name, and drainage area

            Example: USGS 11012500 CAMPO C NR CAMPO CA

                                    Drainage Area = 85 square miles

 

If your gage has a Real Time link, click on that

Click on the presentation-quality graph link.  Save the graph of stream flow within the last few days by right clicking the mouse and saving the file to your hard drive.  Otherwise you can simply print out the graph.

 

Example for Campo Creek:


 

 

 

 

  1. Back click to return to the stream gage web page.  Click on the Daily Streamflow link.  Note the Period of Record in the upper right:

 

Example for Campo Creek gage:

Period of record

From

To

Count

1936-10-01

2001-09-30

23741

Streamflow has been recorded from October 1st, 1936 through September 30th, 2001 (more recent data is located in a preliminary data web site)

Record the Period of Record for your stream gage. 

 

Fill in the blanks for Retrieving data from the last year of recorded data. For example, for the Campo Creek as shown above, I would retrieve data from 2000-09-30 to 2001-09-30

Make sure you have selected graphs of data but change to arithmetic scale.

 

Click the Submit button

 

A graph showing the streamflow for the last year of recorded data will be shown.  Save the graph and insert in your Word document or simply print the graph.

Example for Campo:


  1. You must now obtain the rainfall record for San Diego for the 1 year time period that you have graphed.  In the example above, it will be from October 2000 through September 20001.  Your time period will vary depending on when you do this assignement.

 


Go to the web site for San Diego rainfall (measured at airport)

http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMONtpre.pl?casand

The monthly rainfall in inches is listed in table format.

Record the monthly rainfall for the 12 months of your 1 year time period.

Also record the monthly rainfall for the most recent month listed.  You will use this to confirm rainfall during your real-time flow graph.

STREAMFLOW INTERNET WRITEUP FORMAT

must be printed out from a word processor: 12 point font

 

Include the Following Information

 

Stream Gage Number:

Stream Gage Name:

Drainage Area:

 

Graph from last week of flow (Real-Time data)

Rainfall in the last month:

 

Discuss flow or lack of flow in the last week

 

Graph from last year of Period of Record (Daily Streamflow data)

Monthly rainfall for 12 months covered in the graph above

 

Discuss patterns of rainfall and flow.  What is the highest flow rate and when does it occur?  What is the lowest flow rate and over what time period does it occur?  When does most of the rainfall and streamflow occur.  When is rainfall and streamflow typically limited.