Federal environmental data, drawn for anyone.
8 free interactive maps for seeing what the water and land where you live are doing right now — federal environmental data, gathered from the agencies that publish it and redrawn to be read at a glance. Every state, no account needed.
Every map, and what it is reading.
Each figure below is the real reading this page was built from, not a screenshot — so the shelf can't quietly go stale while the maps move underneath it.
- Any point · Five datasets · United States
Watershed Explorer
Click anywhere in the country and read what the federal record says about that point: streamflow at the nearest USGS gauge, the Drought Monitor category, listed fires within 50 km, the NOAA flood forecast for that subbasin, and Clean Water Act impairment — each labelled with what it is actually a fact about.
- Federal datasets
- 5
- Subbasins covered
- 2,456
- Click
- 1
- Wildfire · Smoke · United States
Wildfire & Smoke Map
Official NIFC fire perimeters and incident points drawn under NOAA's HRRR-Smoke near-surface forecast. Filter by size, state, and containment, then step the smoke forward hour by hour.
- Active fires
- 451
- Acres burning
- 4,188,551
- States affected
- 25
- Streamflow · Rivers · United States
Streamflow Map
Every reporting USGS stream gauge in the country, coloured by how today's flow ranks against its own record for this date. Search any river, or isolate just the gauges running much below normal.
- Gauges reporting
- 8,451
- Much below normal
- 736
- Much above normal
- 344
- Drought · United States
U.S. Drought Map
The official U.S. Drought Monitor, drawn weekly by the National Drought Mitigation Center, USDA, and NOAA. Every severity category across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, with what changed since last week.
- In drought or worse
- 59.1%
- Extreme or worse
- 11.4%
- Week covered
- September 1, 2026
- Flood · Rivers · United States
Flood Outlook Map
NOAA’s river forecast centres call the next few days at gauges across the country. National Weather Service flood categories, with the forecast crest still ahead shown separately from what the gauge is reading now.
- Forecast at or above action
- 52
- Observed at or above action
- 25
- Gauges with a forecast
- 2,011
- Water quality · 303(d) · United States
Impaired Waters Map
What the states told EPA about their own rivers and lakes under the Clean Water Act: which waters are impaired, which are still on the 303(d) list awaiting a cleanup plan, and what is causing it — pathogens, mercury, nutrients, temperature, PFAS.
- Subwatersheds impaired
- 41,539
- On the 303(d) list
- 34,393
- Never assessed
- 47%
- Cyanobacteria · Lakes · United States
Cyanobacteria Bloom Map
NASA and EPA read a pigment index over roughly 2,300 U.S. lakes big enough for the satellite to resolve. A pre-screening indicator that says where to look — not whether a bloom is toxic, and never a substitute for your state’s advisory.
- Lakes elevated or high
- 1,164
- Could not be assessed
- 375
- Lakes screened
- 2,321
- ESA · Protected land · United States
Critical Habitat & Protected Waters Map
Every river the federal government has designated as ESA critical habitat, the listed species it is designated for, and which of the two agencies designated it. An undesignated river is not an unprotected one — designation covers a fraction of listed species, and lags listing by years.
- Designated units
- 8,232
- Mapped along streams
- 6,958
- Listed species
- 869
More public maps are on the way. Tell us which one your program would use.
How current each map is.
Driftwise re-serves federal data; it does not produce it. Every map is as current as its source allows and no more, and each one says which that is on its own page.
Watershed Explorer
There is no single cadence here, which is the point: each of the six readings carries its own source and its own as-of date, because they move between an hour and two years apart. Fire and flood are re-harvested hourly, streamflow twice a day, the Drought Monitor and the CyAN lake composite weekly, and Clean Water Act assessment on the states’ own biennial cycles.
Sources — U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) · NOAA National Water Prediction Service · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ATTAINS) · U.S. Drought Monitor (NDMC / USDA / NOAA) · National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC/WFIGS) · NASA / EPA Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN)
Wildfire & Smoke Map
NIFC harvests the national WFIGS feed continuously; Driftwise re-publishes perimeters and incident points every hour, so the map is at most an hour behind the federal record.
Streamflow Map
Rebuilt at 07:00 and 19:00 Eastern. A daily mean discharge ranked against a daily percentile only moves once a day, so a faster refresh would redraw the same numbers.
Source — U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
U.S. Drought Map
Each U.S. Drought Monitor map is authored by hand for a specific Tuesday and released the following Thursday. Nothing about it is live, and the week it covers is stated everywhere it is drawn.
Flood Outlook Map
NOAA’s river forecast centres reissue their forecasts through the day; both the forecast category and the observed category are re-harvested every hour.
Impaired Waters Map
States and tribes assess their own waters on independent multi-year cycles and report to EPA. The artifact is rebuilt nightly and almost always unchanged — the cadence belongs to the Clean Water Act, not to our scheduler.
Cyanobacteria Bloom Map
The 7-day composite this map renders is published weekly and lags a few days behind the end of its own window. The sampler runs daily so a late composite is picked up promptly, but the underlying observation does not move faster than the satellite product does.
Critical Habitat & Protected Waters Map
Critical habitat changes by rulemaking — a designation is proposed, comments close, and a final rule publishes in the Federal Register, over months to years. PAD-US is republished by USGS roughly annually. The artifact is rebuilt monthly and is usually unchanged; the cadence belongs to the rulemaking calendar, not to our scheduler.
Sources — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) · NOAA Fisheries (NMFS) · USGS Protected Areas Database (PAD-US)
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