ARS Water Database

The ARS Water Database is a collection of precipitation and streamflow data from small agricultural watersheds in the United States. This national archive of variable time-series readings for precipitation and runoff contains sufficient detail to reconstruct storm hydrographs and hyetographs. There are currently about 16,600 station years of data stored in the data base. Watersheds used as study areas range from .2 hectare (0.5 acres) to 12,400 square kilometers (4,786 square miles).

Raingauge networks range from one station per watershed to over 200 stations. The period of record for individual watersheds vary from 1 to 50 years. Some watersheds have been in continuous operation since the mid 1930's. Various types of ancillary data are also maintained with the precipitation and streamflow. These include air temperature, land management practices, topography and soils information. Click on highlighted states on the map below to view available information concerning the individual research areas in that state.

Click on a state to go to data files

FTP connections have been disabled.
The ARS Water Database is now stored in the Ag Data Commons at https://data.nal.usda.gov/dataset/ars-water-database.

Where to go next

• National / Worldwide Climate Database (1949-1996)
• Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) - Soil Moisture/Temperature Near Real-time Data

ARS Watershed Research Center Web Sites

• USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center, Tucson, AZ
• USDA-ARS Southeast Watershed Research Lab., Tifton, GA
• USDA-ARS J. P. Campbell, Sr. Natural Resource Ctr, Watkinsville, GA
• USDA-ARS Northwest Watershed Research Center, Boise, ID
• USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Lab, Oxford, MS
• USDA-ARS Cropping Systems & Water Quality Research, Columbia, MO
• USDA-ARS North Appalachian Experimental Watershed, Coshocton, OH
• USDA-ARS Grazinglands Research Lab, El Reno, OK
• USDA-ARS Pasture Systems & Watershed Mgmt Res, University Park, PA
• USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil/Water Research Lab., Temple, TX

Using ARS Data for Publications

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is a research organization. There are no legal mandates for the agency to collect or to distribute data collected for specific research projects. These data are being made available to the research community to promote the general knowledge of the processes relating to our country's natural resources. ANY PUBLICATIONS WHICH ARE GENERATED FROM THESE DATA SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THE ARS AS THE SOURCE. In addition we request that you notify the Water Data Center of all publications, including dissertations, which use or refer to these data. Citations may be sent by email to rob.parry@ars.usda.gov or by mail to:

Your cooperation in this matter will promote further research and cooperation, help to validate the usefulness of the ARS data collection activities and influence agency policy regarding future data collection.