River levels in Montana.
223 reporting USGS gauges in Montana, each compared against its own record for this calendar day rather than against a fixed threshold — which is what makes "low" mean low for that river.
Gauges across Montana.
One dot per reporting gauge, coloured by how today’s flow ranks against that gauge’s own record for this date.
- Much below normal16
- Below normal34
- Normal93
- Above normal19
- Much above normal31
- No baseline30
Furthest from normal in Montana.
Recorded September 9, 2026. Each gauge is ranked against its own history for this calendar day, so "below normal" means low for that river — not low compared to some other river.
| Gauge | Flow | Median | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellowstone River At Glendive, MT | 3,910 ft³/s | 6,755 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Bighorn River At Bridge, At St. Xavier, MT | 1,590 ft³/s | 2,420 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Bighorn R Bl Yellowtail Afterbay Dam Nr St. Xavier | 1,520 ft³/s | 2,440 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Bighorn River At Two Leggins Bridge, Near Hardin | 1,400 ft³/s | 2,270 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Madison River Bl Hebgen Lake Nr Grayling MT | 760 ft³/s | 1,060 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Madison River Near West Yellowstone, MT | 291 ft³/s | 402 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Tongue River At Tongue R Dam Nr Decker MT | 101 ft³/s | 317 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Tongue R At Birney Day School Br Nr Birney MT | 83.2 ft³/s | 315 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Beaverhead River Near Twin Bridges MT | 78.2 ft³/s | 232 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Little Bighorn River At State Line Nr Wyola MT | 74.6 ft³/s | 99.7 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Beaverhead River At Dillon MT | 74.2 ft³/s | 138 ft³/s | Much below normal |
| Beaverhead River At Barretts MT | 71.1 ft³/s | 316 ft³/s | Much below normal |
Showing 12 of 223 gauges in Montana. The national map is searchable by river and gauge name.
What "below normal" actually means.
The one thing worth understanding before drawing a conclusion from this map.
Every gauge is ranked against its own record for this calendar day. A river that normally runs 40 cubic feet per second in August is "much below normal" at 12; one that normally runs 40,000 is not. That is why a single national colour scale works at all — the comparison is always local, and always seasonal. Gauges with fewer than ten years of record for the date are shown unclassified rather than assumed normal.
This is a daily mean read against a daily percentile, refreshed twice a day. It cannot represent a fast-rising river. For flood forecasts and warnings in Montana, use NOAA's National Water Prediction Service and your local National Weather Service office; for life-safety information, follow your local emergency management agency.
See Montana on the live map.
This page is a still frame. The national map is interactive — pan, zoom, filter, and read every record behind what you see here.
Every reporting USGS stream gauge in the country, coloured by how today’s flow ranks against that gauge’s own record for this calendar day.
More on Montana.
Every Driftwise public map covers Montana. No login, no paywall.
Watershed Explorer
Click any point in the country and read what six federal datasets say about it — flow, drought, fire, flood forecast, satellite cyanobacteria screening and Clean Water Act impairment — each one labelled with what it is actually a fact about.
Wildfire & Smoke Map — Montana
Official NIFC fire perimeters and incident points under NOAA’s HRRR-Smoke near-surface forecast, filterable by size, state, and containment.
U.S. Drought Map — Montana
The U.S. Drought Monitor — the country’s official weekly drought assessment — drawn across five severity categories from D0 to D4.
Flood Outlook Map — Montana
NOAA’s river forecast centres call the next few days at every forecast gauge in the country, on the National Weather Service’s own flood categories — action, minor, moderate and major.
Impaired Waters Map — Montana
Every subwatershed in the country against the states’ own Clean Water Act assessments — what is impaired, what is still on the 303(d) list, what is causing it, and how much of the country nobody has assessed at all.
Cyanobacteria Bloom Map — Montana
NASA and EPA’s satellites read a pigment index over roughly 2,300 U.S. lakes large enough to resolve at 300 m. A pre-screening indicator, not a health assessment, and never a substitute for your state’s advisory.
Critical Habitat & Protected Waters Map — Montana
Every river and stream the federal government has designated as ESA critical habitat, the listed species each unit is designated for, and who manages the protected land around it.
River levels by state.
Every state, with the number of USGS gauges reporting there. The national map covers all of them at once.
- Alabama140 gauges
- Alaska90 gauges
- Arizona186 gauges
- Arkansas111 gauges
- California437 gauges
- Colorado320 gauges
- Connecticut69 gauges
- Delaware17 gauges
- District of Columbia3 gauges
- Florida374 gauges
- Georgia283 gauges
- Hawaii79 gauges
- Idaho193 gauges
- Illinois185 gauges
- Indiana193 gauges
- Iowa135 gauges
- Kansas178 gauges
- Kentucky148 gauges
- Louisiana54 gauges
- Maine64 gauges
- Maryland128 gauges
- Massachusetts108 gauges
- Michigan199 gauges
- Minnesota110 gauges
- Mississippi71 gauges
- Missouri226 gauges
- Montana223 gauges
- Nebraska113 gauges
- Nevada145 gauges
- New Hampshire53 gauges
- New Jersey117 gauges
- New Mexico155 gauges
- New York297 gauges
- North Carolina233 gauges
- North Dakota102 gauges
- Ohio215 gauges
- Oklahoma134 gauges
- Oregon239 gauges
- Pennsylvania296 gauges
- Puerto Rico99 gauges
- Rhode Island34 gauges
- South Carolina122 gauges
- South Dakota104 gauges
- Tennessee106 gauges
- Texas515 gauges
- Utah174 gauges
- Vermont51 gauges
- Virginia198 gauges
- Washington234 gauges
- West Virginia102 gauges
- Wisconsin181 gauges
- Wyoming104 gauges
One platform for three monitoring programs.
Run a mark-recapture program, coordinate a multi-partner invasive species response, or manage the waterway program for a state park or conservation nonprofit. Bring your own program to the demo and we'll run Driftwise on it, live.
Request a demoA free 30-minute working session with your data on screen.
Scope a pilot for your program.
Tell us about your program — a watershed, an infestation, a trail system. We'll walk through how a field record becomes the report your agency and funders sign off on.
A working call, not a pitch
We spend the time on your actual program — the data you have now and the report you owe.
Guided onboarding
We import your existing records and configure the setup alongside your team. Role-based in-product tours carry the rest of the crew after the call.
Start with one season
Run a single pilot first and expand when it earns the next watershed.
Send us your corridor, watershed, or program and we'll build the working demo around your records. We reply within one business day.
Click to reveal — we obscure the address to cut spam.