The monitoring network within this area

Hydrionis holds 5,724 values from 9 gauges within it. Discharge is a property of a gauge and its reach, not of this drainage area, so this page reports the network and its records rather than a single figure.

9

Gauges

5,724

Values held

1889–2026

Record spans

Gauges within the Upper Rio Grande huc8 subbasin

9 monitoring points, positioned as the publisher records them.

Flood peaks, as measured

This gauge's flood record, as measured. Unlike a daily mean it is the discharge at the moment the river was highest, which is the figure flood frequency analysis is built on.

Largest measured flow of each year at RIO GRANDE AT EMBUDO, NM

The highest instantaneous discharge the publisher recorded in each year — a flood peak as measured, not a daily average of one. 1889–2025.

Show relevant events (1 event)Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.

Published by the gauge's own operator from its sub-daily record; Hydrionis stores the figure rather than recomputing it. A year the gauge did not cover produces no value rather than a low one, and the gaps are stated below the chart. A peak is a property of this gauge and its reach: a larger flood upstream or downstream of it is not in this series.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

Event	Type	Period	Standing	Authority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse	Flood	2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30	Documented record	Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	RIO GRANDE AT EMBUDO, NM (m³/s)
1889	167
1890	178
1891	249
1892	194
1893	150
1895	146
1896	88.1
1897	254
1898	133
1899	47.9
1900	159
1901	210
1902	70.8
1903	459
1905	396
1913	58.9
1914	204
1915	208
1916	242
1917	244
1918	101
1919	206
1920	360
1921	408
1922	212
1923	136
1924	249
1925	44.7
1926	156
1927	269
1928	148
1929	166
1930	63.4
1931	49.3
1932	203
1933	123
1934	23.6
1935	167
1936	103
1937	189
1938	154
1939	68.2
1940	56.4
1941	340
1942	306
1943	62.9
1944	248
1945	152
1946	55.2
1947	116
1948	289
1949	283
1950	41.6
1951	20.1
1952	247
1953	56.6
1954	52.7
1955	62.3
1956	28.9
1957	142
1958	194
1959	78.2
1960	65.7
1961	66.3
1962	113
1963	27.4
1964	27.0
1965	147
1966	55.2
1967	101
1968	92.6
1969	88.9
1970	63.7
1971	52.7
1972	30.9
1973	187
1974	29.7
1975	105
1976	64.8
1977	70.2
1978	42.2
1979	255
1980	144
1981	83.0
1982	142
1983	160
1984	170
1985	238
1986	212
1987	263
1988	31.4
1989	71.9
1990	70.2
1991	162
1992	94.3
1993	158
1994	169
1995	210
1996	26.5
1997	140
1998	71.6
1999	93.7
2001	83.8
2002	19.0
2003	29.7
2004	49.6
2005	186
2006	65.7
2007	50.7
2008	110
2009	103
2010	73.3
2011	35.4
2012	48.1
2013	30.6
2014	117
2015	64.3
2016	69.1
2017	116
2018	21.2
2019	134
2020	25.7
2021	45.6
2022	51.3
2023	154
2024	45.0
2025	32.3

About this series

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source	United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to exist	Measured
Period held	1889–2025
Completeness	92.7% of the periods in that span are held. Gaps are drawn as breaks and never interpolated.
Known gaps	4 separate periods inside 1889–2025 hold no value. The longest runs from 1906 to 1912 — 7 years with no reading. They are drawn as breaks in the line and are never interpolated across.
Continuity	The record begins in 1889 and is not continuous from it: 137 years separate the first value from the last, and 93% of the years between them are held. The span is not the record.
Last read from the publisher	2026-10-01
Redistribution	Permitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reuse	Permitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
Methodology	How this was produced

How much of the rain came back out

A discharge in cubic metres per second cannot be compared with anything: the larger number may only mean the larger catchment. Divided by the area draining to the gauge it becomes a depth of water over that land, which answers a question a reader already has — of the rain that fell here, how much came back out as river?

Water leaving the catchment above RIO GRANDE BLW TAOS JUNCTION BRIDGE NEAR TAOS, NM, as a depth

The year's flow spread over the land draining to this gauge, in millimetres — the same unit rainfall is measured in. 1926–2025.

Show relevant events (1 event)Shading marks when something was recorded, not what caused the line.

Computed by Hydrionis from the published annual mean flow and the catchment area the station's own publisher states. It is not a water balance: the difference between rainfall and runoff is not evaporation alone but also change in groundwater storage, water abstracted and taken elsewhere, and water imported by transfer schemes — which is why a catchment can yield more runoff than the rain that fell on it without anything being measured wrongly. A different area figure rescales every value here by the ratio between them.

What the shaded periods are (1 event)

A shaded period marks when something was recorded, not what caused the shape of the line. Where the two coincide, they coincided.

Documented record — A documented event, compiled from cited sources after it happened. The dates are as good as the record, which for older events can mean the month rather than the day.

Event	Type	Period	Standing	Authority
Hurricane Katrina water and sanitation collapse	Flood	2005-08-29 – 2005-09-30	Documented record	Compiled record

Not shown on this chart

The 1976 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
The 2022 drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Yorkshire drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cantareira water crisis, São Paulo — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
Cape Town Day Zero — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.
European drought — This event’s area does not contain this chart’s subject. Sharing a country is not sharing an event, so it is not drawn.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	RIO GRANDE BLW TAOS JUNCTION BRIDGE NEAR TAOS, NM (mm)
1926	48.0
1927	66.0
1928	33.0
1929	53.0
1930	31.0
1931	20.0
1932	59.0
1933	28.0
1934	17.0
1935	40.0
1936	33.0
1937	55.0
1938	58.0
1939	28.0
1940	19.0
1941	96.0
1942	81.0
1943	26.0
1944	62.0
1945	40.0
1946	20.0
1947	30.0
1948	63.0
1949	56.0
1950	21.0
1951	15.0
1952	51.0
1953	22.0
1954	16.0
1955	17.0
1956	15.0
1957	53.0
1958	47.0
1959	17.0
1960	27.0
1961	26.0
1962	36.0
1963	15.0
1964	14.0
1965	51.0
1966	30.0
1967	22.0
1968	36.0
1969	44.0
1970	36.0
1971	25.0
1972	21.0
1973	55.0
1974	19.0
1975	45.0
1976	28.0
1977	14.0
1978	23.0
1979	70.0
1980	48.0
1981	18.0
1982	44.0
1983	50.0
1984	48.0
1985	84.0
1986	74.0
1987	77.0
1988	24.0
1989	29.0
1990	25.0
1991	42.0
1992	34.0
1993	50.0
1994	45.0
1995	60.0
1996	20.0
1997	56.0
1998	31.0
1999	48.0
2000	18.0
2001	33.0
2002	14.0
2003	16.0
2004	25.0
2005	49.0
2006	25.0
2007	33.0
2008	46.0
2009	36.0
2010	31.0
2011	24.0
2012	19.0
2013	19.0
2014	27.0
2015	34.0
2016	33.0
2017	46.0
2018	14.0
2019	54.0
2020	18.0
2021	20.0
2022	23.0
2023	44.0
2024	25.0
2025	22.0

About this series

Everything below is a property of the data rather than a rating of it. There is deliberately no single confidence score: how much a gap matters depends on what you are about to do with the series, and only you know that.

Source	United States Geological Survey — National Water Information System · US Government work — public domain
How the values came to exist	Derived Computed by Hydrionis
Period held	1926–2025
Completeness	100.0% of the periods in that span are held.
Continuity	Continuous: every year from 1926 to 2025 is held.
Inputs last read	2026-10-01 · when the records this was computed from were last read from their publishers
Calculation date	2026-08-24 · when the calculation method was last versioned, not a reading of any publisher
Redistribution	Permitted by the upstream licences
Commercial reuse	Permitted by the upstream licences. No Hydrionis access tier can widen this.
Methodology	How this was produced

The snow standing above this water

10 automated snow stations sit inside this drainage area, weighing the snowpack rather than measuring how deep it is.

269

Fullest snowpack recorded at North Costilla, in 1993 (mm of water)

11

Thinnest, in 2018 (mm of water)

March

Month the pack is usually at its fullest

May

Month the pack has gone by, in half of years

Peak snowpack at North Costilla

Water years 1980–2026. Each point is the fullest month of that snow season.

A water year runs October to September and is named for the year it ends, so the snow of one winter stays in one point. The value is the fullest month, not the fullest day: a pack that peaked sharply mid-month reads lower here than a single measurement taken at the right moment would.

View the data behind this chart

Underlying data
Period	North Costilla (mm)
1980	173
1981	35.0
1982	78.0
1983	257
1984	139
1985	103
1986	38.0
1987	202
1988	84.0
1989	180
1990	116
1991	85.0
1992	227
1993	269
1994	251
1995	193
1996	126
1997	167
1998	174
1999	61.0
2000	112
2001	211
2002	80.0
2003	195
2004	122
2005	252
2006	47.0
2007	157
2008	266
2009	162
2010	220
2011	105
2012	71.0
2013	119
2014	19.0
2015	181
2016	135
2017	168
2018	11.0
2019	248
2020	171
2021	169
2022	86.0
2023	128
2024	108
2025	21.0
2026	12.0

Read against the river

North Costilla and RIO GRANDE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, NM both sit in this drainage area, and their records overlap by 45 years. That is the span the two have in common, not a count of years both actually hold — either record may have gaps inside it. The two are shown separately rather than on one axis: millimetres of stored water and cubic metres per second are not commensurable, and a difference between them would mean nothing.

Being in the same drainage area does not put the snowpack upstream of the gauge. A subbasin is an area, and snow on one tributary can join the river below a gauge on another — so a weak relationship here may say more about which tributary was measured than about the snow.

Every gauge Hydrionis holds within this area

Gauges within the Upper Rio Grande and what each holds
Gauge	Measures	Values	Record
RIO GRANDE AT EMBUDO, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	355	1889–2026
RIO GRANDE BLW TAOS JUNCTION BRIDGE NEAR TAOS, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	337	1925–2026
EMBUDO CREEK AT DIXON, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	301	1923–2026
RIO LUCERO NEAR ARROYO SECO, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	278	1911–2026
RIO GRANDE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	270	1895–2026
RIO PUEBLO DE TAOS NEAR TAOS, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	260	1911–2026
RED RIVER NEAR QUESTA, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	252	1915–2026
ARROYO HONDO AT ARROYO HONDO, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	220	1912–2026
RIO PUEBLO DE TAOS AT LOS CORDOVAS, NM	burned area within 50 km, catchment area, annual maximum river flow, mean river flow, mean river flow, water year	184	1910–2026

How these gauges were attached to this water

Assigned by the publisher to a numbered basin Every gauge here is assigned to this drainage area by its own publisher, which issues the area an official code — 13020101. A drainage area is not a river: it contains the tributaries as well as the main channel, and a gauge in it may be on any of them.

What each gauge’s link to this water rests on
Gauge	Evidence	Established
RIO GRANDE AT EMBUDO, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RIO GRANDE BLW TAOS JUNCTION BRIDGE NEAR TAOS, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
EMBUDO CREEK AT DIXON, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RIO LUCERO NEAR ARROYO SECO, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RIO GRANDE AT OTOWI BRIDGE, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RIO PUEBLO DE TAOS NEAR TAOS, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RED RIVER NEAR QUESTA, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
ARROYO HONDO AT ARROYO HONDO, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02
RIO PUEBLO DE TAOS AT LOS CORDOVAS, NM	Stated by the publisher — USGS site service, huc_cd field — https://waterservices.usgs.gov/nwis/site/ ; named from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset 8-digit HU (Subbasin) layer — https://hydro.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services/wbd/MapServer/4	2026-10-02

What this record holds

Hydrionis decides which waters get a page, and which of those are offered to search, from what is actually held rather than from how the page reads. Five signals are counted; this record has 5 of them, which makes it a full profile.

Information-gain signals held for this water body
Signal	Held	Counts
Gauges holding a real record	9	yes, 3 or more
Years spanned	138	yes, 20 or more
Values held	5,724	yes, 1000 or more
Distinct measurements	6	yes, 2 or more
Publishers measuring it	2	yes, 2 or more
Official identifiers	1	recorded, not counted

Use this data

Machine-readable JSON /api/v1/observations/by-subject/gauge-usgs-08279500.json
How to cite this, and who you must credit
How these figures were produced
Request this at a different scale, format or geography

No bulk download is offered here, which is a licence position rather than a product one: at least one contributing publisher does not permit redistribution. The values can be read on the page, cited, and pointed to at source.

Attribution and citation

Suggested citation for Hydrionis

Hydrionis (2026), Upper Rio Grande gauge records, accessed 2026-10-05, hydrionis.com/waters/united-states-upper-rio-grande/

Cite Hydrionis where you rely on values Hydrionis computed, on the method that produced them, or on the compilation itself. The underlying measurements remain the publishers’ and their attribution requirements apply to you directly.

Recommended, not required. Hydrionis does not claim rights over unmodified public data it relayed, and doing arithmetic on somebody else’s measurements does not make them Hydrionis’s. Cite the version and the access date: the Upper Rio Grande gauge records changes as publishers release and as methods are revised, and a citation without both cannot be checked later. Full guidance is on cite and reuse.

None of the contributing licences requires attribution. Crediting the publishers is still good practice and they are listed above.

Where these figures come from

MeasuredHigh confidence2025-05-14

Source: USGS — National Water Information System, USGS site 08279500, annual peak streamflow. Licence: Open.

Method: The instantaneous maximum discharge of each water year as published by USGS, dated to the day it occurred. One value per October-to-September water year; where the publisher lists both a systematic and a historic peak for a year, the larger is the annual maximum. Values the publisher marks as maximum daily averages are not held here, because they are not instantaneous peaks. Values marked as bounded rather than measured are held as censored observations carrying the bound. Cubic feet per second are converted to cubic metres per second and the publisher unit is recorded alongside.

Rating curves are extrapolated at extreme discharges, so the largest values in a peak series carry the largest measurement uncertainty. Data from the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System, a work of the United States government and therefore in the public domain.

Retrieved 1 October 2026.