Thermal regimes are important to aquatic ecosystems because they strongly dictate species distributions, productivity, and abundance. Inexpensive digital temperature loggers, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing technologies, and new spatial analyses are facilitating the development of temperature models and monitoring networks applicable at broad spatial scales.

This web site provides resources to help those in the western U.S. organize temperature monitoring efforts, describes techniques for measuring stream temperatures, and describes several statistical models for predicting stream temperatures and thermally suitable fish habitats from temperature data. You will also find useful links to other stream temperature resources such as publications, videos, and presentations on topics relating to thermal regimes in streams. By accurately portraying and making available a comprehensive and updated set of stream temperature sites monitored by several agencies, we hope to facilitate data sharing and avoid redundancies as new monitoring sites are added to the regional network. If you are interested in obtaining temperature data or have sites to add to stream temperature monitoring maps, please contact Sherry Wollrab: 208.373.4371 or sherry.p.wollrab@usda.gov