Data

This data release contains historical SnowModel outputs for the Willow Creek and Big Thompson, CO watersheds and surrounding area. Simulated outputs were produced on a 30 meter (m) geospatial grid and forced using meteorology from the National Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS-2). These simulations used daily snow water equivalent (SWE) time-series from 13 National Resources...

These data were compiled to examine analyte concentrations, including mercury and selenium, and stable isotopes in native and non-native fish across rivers in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Data were collected in 2016 and 2017. Tissue samples were collected as whole-body or muscle plugs (biopsies). Tissue samples were analyzed for stable isotopes in 772 samples, for selenium and 54...

The U.S Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), prepares a biennial analysis of salt loading at 20 sites on the Colorado River and its tributaries in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. These estimates can also be used by Reclamation to measure the effectiveness of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Program. Data are...

This data release documents eight 30-year SUTRA simulations summarized in Pepin and others (2025) and provides output from one short (1-year) simulation to provide verification that the model code runs properly. The most recent, but not-yet published, version of SUTRA (version 4.0) was used to evaluate reservoir thermal energy storage performance by simulating radially symmetric...

This data release contains SnowModel snow evolution simulation output from water years 2022 to 2023 (October 1, 2021, through September 30, 2023) on a 100-meter (m) geospatial grid for a 3 kilometer (km) × 2 km model domain near Coal Creek off Coal Bank Pass in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado, USA. The three quantities simulated for this release were snow water equivalent...

Since its formation, the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum and its partners have completed a substantial amount of work in an ongoing effort to reduce salinity concentrations and loads in the Colorado River. These efforts and related monitoring have generated a large volume of data and information. This data release includes geospatial datasets that provide information on...

Identifying long-term trends in water availability, including surface water quantity, is a key part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Integrated Water Availability Assessments (IWAAs) mission. This data release includes input and output data used in Mann-Kendall trend analyses to characterize streamflow conditions at 124 USGS streamgages in the Upper Colorado River Basin for water...

The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, created a numerical groundwater-flow model for the Wet Mountain Valley alluvial aquifer using the finite-difference MODFLOW code with the Newton formulation solver. This numerical groundwater-flow model simulates water-budget components, groundwater and surface-water interactions, and evaluates...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) installed and operated several flood and debris flow warning gages within or downstream from the Spring Creek burn scar, Colorado, U.S.A. The warning gages were operated during several years post fire (2019-21) in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). The USGS warning gages were part of a larger post-wildfire...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Colorado Springs Utilities, has been collecting topographic data annually since 2012 at 10 study areas along Fountain Creek, Colorado. The 10 study areas are located along Fountain Creek between Colorado Springs and the confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River in Pueblo. This data release presents topographic survey data, Light...

A synoptic sampling campaign was conducted on the Animas River near Silverton, Colorado, under low-flow conditions in September 2021. The sampling campaign was designed to quantify constituent loading and identify sources of contamination along a 3.8-kilometer study reach. The study reach began approximately 170 meters upstream of Arrastra Creek and extended downstream to U.S. Geological...

MODFLOW-6 with the Groundwater Flow (GWF) and Groundwater Transport (GWT) models was used to simulate the geohydrology of the aquifer system of the Paradox Valley in western Colorado. Salinity of the Colorado River is a major concern in both the United States and the Republic of Mexico. The Colorado River and its tributaries supply water for about 40 million people and irrigation of...