Support

Questions, bug reports, or feature ideas? We read every message.

WaterFlow is built by one small team. Replies typically come within a day or two.

Common questions

The flow value on my favorite gauge looks wrong.

WaterFlow displays exactly what the U.S. Geological Survey reports — we don’t transform or smooth the numbers. If a reading looks wrong, the same value is showing on the official USGS Water Dashboard at waterdata.usgs.gov. That’s the original source and is updated several times an hour by USGS hardware.

If the USGS Dashboard shows a different number than WaterFlow for the same gauge, please email us with the station ID and a screenshot — that’s a bug we want to fix.

My alert didn’t fire.

Flow alerts run as background tasks. iOS controls when those run, and the schedule can stretch when your phone is in Low Power Mode or hasn’t been used recently. Try:

Open WaterFlow at least once a day to keep the background scheduler warm.
Confirm WaterFlow has Notifications permission (iOS Settings › Notifications › WaterFlow › Allow).
Confirm Background App Refresh is on for WaterFlow (iOS Settings › General › Background App Refresh).

If alerts still don’t fire after that, email us with the gauge ID and the threshold you set.

The widget isn’t updating.

iOS strictly controls when widgets refresh. WaterFlow asks for a refresh every 15 minutes, but iOS may delay it longer based on battery, foreground usage, and signal strength. To force a refresh: tap and hold the widget › Edit Widget › exit. This usually re-runs the timeline.

Does WaterFlow work without internet?

WaterFlow caches the most recent reading for every favorite, so the home-screen widget keeps showing the last value when you’re offline. New readings require an internet connection — they come live from USGS.

Which states does WaterFlow cover?

All 50 U.S. states, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands — anywhere USGS operates a streamgauge with public real-time data. International rivers are not currently supported.

How is my privacy protected?

WaterFlow has no accounts, no analytics, and no tracking. When you use the Nearby feature, the app sends a rough search area — not your exact coordinates — to USGS so it can return gauges near you. Gauge data comes from USGS, weather from NOAA, and map imagery from Apple, the same way a browser would fetch them. Read the full policy on the Privacy page.

Is WaterFlow affiliated with USGS or NOAA?

No. WaterFlow is an independent app from Thunder Grouse LLC. We use the public data feeds that USGS and NOAA publish for any developer to consume, exactly as a researcher or a journalist would. We are grateful for that public data — but we don’t speak for those agencies, and they don’t speak for us.

Reporting a bug

Include in your email:

iOS version (Settings › General › About › Software Version)
WaterFlow version (Settings tab inside WaterFlow › scroll to the bottom)
What you did, what you expected, what happened instead
Station ID(s) involved (if any)
A screenshot if you have one

We don’t have crash reports — we rely on you telling us.

License & attribution

USGS streamflow data: public domain, U.S. Geological Survey
National Weather Service forecasts: public domain, NOAA / NWS