EARTH · RIVERS & FLOODS
Two networks, one river map
River flow is measured two ways here, and the map shows both at once. Across the United States, thousands of USGS streamgages report a live gage height and streamflowevery 15–60 minutes. For the great rivers of the rest of the world, the European Copernicus GloFAS flood model estimates a daily river discharge— the volume of water passing a point each second. Both are free and open; both are shown with the time they were taken.
What the colours mean
Each river is tinted by how much water is moving past— blue where flow is low, through green and amber to red where a river is running very full. It is a size-and-volume cue, nota flood verdict: whether a given level means flooding depends on that river’s own banks and flood stage. A big river at its normal summer level still reads red simply because it is big.
New to river gages, or wondering when a level actually means flooding? These explainers unpack it:
The two networks on the map
The US Geological Survey runs a national network of gages that report a live gage height (feet) and streamflow(cubic feet per second), refreshed every 15–60 minutes. US federal data, public domain.
The Global Flood Awareness System estimates a daily river discharge(m³/s) for the world’s rivers by routing rainfall and snowmelt downstream. Each river here is pinned to its verified main-stem cell, so the reading is the trunk of the river, not a side channel.
The great rivers of the world
Open any river for its latest discharge and how to picture it — grouped by continent, largest first.
South America
Asia
North America
Africa
US rivers, gage by gage
Open any river for its live USGS reading — gage height and streamflow, updated through the day.
See it in context
About this data
US readings come from USGS Water Services (US federal data, public domain), which reports instantaneous gage height and streamflow at each gage. World-river discharge comes from the Copernicus Emergency Management Service’s GloFAS model, served keyless via the Open-Meteo Flood API, and updated daily. We show each figure with the time it was taken, and we frame every reading as a measurement of flow — not a statement that a river is or isn’t flooding, which depends on that river’s own flood stage. If a level matters to you, consult the source network or your local flood authority directly.