Grand County Water Information Network
Stream Temperature
Since 2005, GCWIN has monitored Grand County's streams and rivers for temperature. Currently, GCWIN has 55 active monitoring sites spread out across the county. Stream temperature remains a concern particularly in the summer when high temperatures can hurt our valuable cold-water trout fisheries.
April - October
Length of the monitoring season. We deploy our seasonal sensors throughout the month of April and pull them from the river during the month of October. Some sites are visited weekly, others bi-weekly. We have 6 year-round sites.
Every 15 minutes
When temperature data is collected. Our sensors are programmed to collect the temperature of the water every 15 minutes to account for minute changes in temp that may occur with precipitation, sun exposure, or other environmnetal factors.
55 sites total
The 2023 monitoring season saw 55 stream temperature sites spread out over five programs: GCWIN (15 sites), Denver Water (26 sites), Learning by Doing (11 sites), Upper CO Wild & Scenic (3 sites), and Northern Water Temperature and Electric Conductivity (7 sites)
Air temperature
This program includes select air temperature sites. At 6 of our stream temperature sites, an air temperature sensor is deployed as well, the data used to supplement the stream temp data.
GCWIN's Stream Temperature Monitoring Plan:
-
Provides a baseline of temperature data in the Upper Colorado and Fraser River Basins
-
Provides information that has been used to support Colorado stream temperature standards
-
Facilitated Grand County's Stream Management Plan
-
Supports operational decisions for water diversion projects