Data sources

National Weather Service

Weather data is retrieved from the National Weather Service. Forecast-grid values are used for temperature, wind, cloud cover, precipitation probability and the 7-day Fishing Score outlook. Standard NWS forecast periods are also used for daily high/low temperatures and short weather summaries. When current forecast-grid pressure is unavailable, the site can use barometric pressure from a nearby NWS observation station.

NOAA Tides & Currents

Selected coastal pages use NOAA CO-OPS tide predictions and observed water temperature from mapped stations. Coverage depends on station availability and installed sensors.

USGS Water Data

Selected inland pages query manually mapped USGS reference stations. The modern USGS Water Data API is the primary source for current and recent observations. If recent-history collection is temporarily unavailable, the site can fall back to official USGS Water Services IV/DV endpoints for that same station. Supported current fields include water temperature (00010), discharge or streamflow (00060), gage height (00065), reservoir elevation (00062) and common lake-surface elevation parameters. Readings older than 48 hours are not presented as current.

USGS seasonal statistics

Where available, the site first queries the modern USGS Statistics API observationNormals endpoint for approved day-of-year medians. Because that API is currently beta, the Worker can fall back to the official legacy Statistics Service for the same mapped station if needed. These statistics are cached much longer than live readings because they change slowly. The page shows the number of approved observations contributing to the same calendar day when supplied by USGS. At least 20 contributing streamflow observations are required before the baseline can affect the current Fishing Score.

USGS API key

The public USGS endpoints can work without a key. An API key can be stored as the USGS_API_KEY Worker secret for higher rate limits on modern Water Data API requests. Secrets are not stored in source code.

Astronomical calculations

Sunrise, sunset and moon phase are calculated from the date and location coordinates.

Update behavior

Weather and current water responses are cached for short periods to reduce duplicate requests while keeping location pages current. Long-term USGS statistics are cached for seven days because approved historical baselines change slowly.