Meteorological, water-temperature, and discharge data for the Mattole River basin, Humboldt County, California

To overcome a major difficulty in the testing of the validity of river-temperature models - the lack of adequate precise synoptic data for an entire river basin - synoptic meteorologic, water-temperature, and discharge data were obtained in the Mattole River Basin in northern California during the period June 10 through August 31, 1975. The variables monitored were water temperature in the main channel and major tributaries, wind velocity, wet-bulb and dry-bulb air temperature, total hemispherical incoming radiation, total incoming shortwave radiation, discharge in the main channel and major tributaries, and average velocity and axial dispersion coefficients in the main channel. This report describes the experimental design and the instrumentation and procedures followed to insure the best possible information, and it presents a detailed set of data which can be used in testing river-temperature models. (USGS)