Data disclaimer & attribution

Not for navigation or safety decisions

LakePulse aggregates public data to help you plan time on the water. It is not a safety system, an official forecast, or a substitute for judgment. Conditions on lakes change faster than any 15-minute gauge or hourly model — always verify against official sources (National Weather Service for advisories, agency ramp pages for access) and your own eyes before launching. The decision to go out, and its consequences, are yours.

Model forecasts are estimates

Wind numbers come from numerical weather models served via Open-Meteo. Models carry uncertainty, and terrain-complex lakes (mountain, desert, canyon) can differ substantially from model output. The sailing score is an opinion encoded in math — a useful one, we think, but an opinion. Treat it as a planning aid, not ground truth.

Gauge-to-lake matching

Each lake page is matched to a USGS gauge by proximity and naming. Most matches are exact; some large reservoirs have multiple gauges and we show the most representative one. If data looks wrong for your lake, trust the source: every page links to the official USGS monitoring page for its gauge.

Sources & licenses

• USGS National Water Information System — USGS National Water Information System — water levels, elevations, temperatures. Public domain.
• Open-Meteo — Open-Meteo — weather forecasts (NOAA HRRR/GFS, DWD ICON and others), under their free API terms.
• RainViewer — RainViewer — radar tiles, free tier.
• OpenStreetMap & Overpass API — OpenStreetMap & Overpass API — launch ramps, marinas, clubs; base map tiles by CARTO. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
• Solunar times — Solunar times — computed by LakePulse from standard astronomical approximations; accuracy ±15 minutes.

Affiliation

LakePulse is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by USGS, NOAA, Open-Meteo, CARTO, the OpenStreetMap Foundation, or any agency.