Surface Water | Current State

The 2024 water year was on average a dry year, with 66% of surface water stations experiencing discharge at or below the 25th percentile for the year. Only 1 out of 110 stations experienced mean annual flows above the 75th percentile. Stations report average or above average discharge were primarily in the northern part of the state, in the Kankakee River, St. Joseph River and Great Lakes basins. Stations experiencing the lowest annual average flow were mostly south of Indianapolis. Sixty-four percent of stations expeirenced average maximum flows, with 33% of stations experiencing highflows at or below the 25th percentile. Forty-nine percent of minimum flows fell below the 25th percentile, while 48% were about normal. While the year was generally dry, 65% of stations ranked between the 25th and 75th percentile at the end of the year. Lowest flows at the end of the year are concentrated along the Wabash River.

The Surface Water Current State webmap (link below) displays surface water metrics based on streamflow gauges within the state of Indiana with at least 30 years of observations. Several water level metrics are available for display to represent the current state of Indiana surface water resources. These metrics include flow rate normalized by watershed area for the most recent water year as well as percentiles to convey how the most recent water year compares to the previous 29 water years at each of the sites. Descriptions of the various layers present in the webmap can be seen at the bottom of this page.