BirdTrout

Mohawk River, New York

13.3 mapped river miles, draining 3,432 square miles, in the Mohawk basin watershed. 10 USGS gauges report water temperature on it, and this page reads all 10.

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Map key
Public land — where the bank is open to walk and fish
USGS gauge — live water temperature
Water temperature — the colour of the river, and of every dot on it

50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.

Water temperature right now

Live from the USGS — every pill above is live, so the numbers you are reading are the latest continuous readings at each gauge. Provisional and unreviewed, as all real-time data is. If that fetch cannot happen — you are offline, or the USGS is down — the pills fall back to the last value we cached, 1 October 2026, 02:35 UTC. Not all of them, though: Ilion Ny, Lock 8 near Schenectady Ny, Rexford Ny, Diversion To Power Plant at Cohoes Ny, and Hudson River at Green Island Ny are not reporting water temperature. Those pills carry a modelled temperature where one can be fitted, marked as modelled, and a dash where it cannot — never a stale reading dressed as a current one.

64.1 °F
Ilion Ny
RM 0.0 · modelled for 28 September 2026, not a reading
Cool
63.5 °F
Mohawk R above State Highway 30A at Fonda Ny
RM 0.0 · 1,650 cfs · read 30 Sep, 10:15 pm ET
Cold-transitional
63.9 °F
Mohawk R Blw Pepper Island at Fort Johnson Ny
RM 0.0 · read 30 Sep, 9:30 pm ET
Cold-transitional
64.0 °F
Amsterdam Ny
RM 0.0 · 3,700 cfs · read 30 Sep, 10:15 pm ET
Cool
64.8 °F
Lock 9 at Rotterdam Junction Ny
RM 0.0 · read 30 Sep, 10:20 pm ET
Cool
63.8 °F
Lock 8 near Schenectady Ny
RM 0.0 · modelled for 28 September 2026, not a reading
Cold-transitional
63.5 °F
Rexford Ny
RM 0.0 · modelled for 28 September 2026, not a reading
Cold-transitional
64.0 °F
Diversion To Power Plant at Cohoes Ny
RM 0.0 · modelled for 28 September 2026, not a reading
Cool
64.9 °F
Cohoes Ny
RM 0.0 · 4,450 cfs · read 30 Sep, 9:30 pm ET
Cool
—
Hudson River at Green Island Ny
RM 0.0 · 8,020 cfs
Unknown

Thermal classification

Each gauge carries a July mean built from its own daily record — 6 Julys, 2019–2025, measured rather than modelled. A July mean is what decides which of the four bands a stretch of water belongs to, because July is when a trout river either holds or does not.

Reach July mean Band Groundwater
Ilion Ny
RM 13.3–0.0
75.0 °F warm low
Mohawk R above State Highway 30A at Fonda Ny
RM -38.7–0.0
77.5 °F warm low
Mohawk R Blw Pepper Island at Fort Johnson Ny
RM -63.0–0.0
76.9 °F warm low
Amsterdam Ny
RM -68.7–0.0
77.2 °F warm low
Lock 9 at Rotterdam Junction Ny
RM -75.4–0.0
78.7 °F warm low
Lock 8 near Schenectady Ny
RM -81.3–0.0
78.1 °F warm low
Rexford Ny
RM -87.6–0.0
78.5 °F warm low
Diversion To Power Plant at Cohoes Ny
RM -97.6–0.0
76.9 °F warm low
Cohoes Ny
RM -107.0–0.0
79.4 °F warm low
Hudson River at Green Island Ny
RM -108.7–0.0
76.9 °F warm low

Every gauge sits at the bottom of its segment, so each number is the warm end and the water above it runs colder. ±2.33 °F on the fit.

Questions about this river

NYSDEC classification

NYSDEC classifies this water as Class A — drinking water source, Class B — swimming and contact recreation, and Class C — fishing. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. On those reaches DEC also designates it trout spawning waters, trout waters — which is the half of the classification that is about temperature, and the half this map paints by. The class is a designation of best usage under 6 NYCRR — what the water is protected for — and not the season and creel rules, which change yearly and live with the agency.

NYSDEC water quality classifications and standards →

Fishable reaches

River miles are measured above the mouth, along the mapped mainstem. The reach breaks are the gauges, which is also how the temperature model divides the river.

Reach Miles July mean Access on it
RM 13.3–0.0
down to Ilion Ny
52.1 75.0 °F 5 sites — Mohawk River/Barge Canal at Niskayuna and 4 more
RM -38.7–0.0
down to Mohawk R above State Highway 30A at Fonda Ny
24.3 77.5 °F —
RM -63.0–0.0
down to Mohawk R Blw Pepper Island at Fort Johnson Ny
5.6 76.9 °F —
RM -68.7–0.0
down to Amsterdam Ny
6.7 77.2 °F —
RM -75.4–0.0
down to Lock 9 at Rotterdam Junction Ny
6.0 78.7 °F —
RM -81.3–0.0
down to Lock 8 near Schenectady Ny
6.3 78.1 °F —
RM -87.6–0.0
down to Rexford Ny
10.0 78.5 °F —
RM -97.6–0.0
down to Diversion To Power Plant at Cohoes Ny
9.4 76.9 °F —
RM -107.0–0.0
down to Cohoes Ny
1.7 79.4 °F —
RM -108.7–0.0
down to Hudson River at Green Island Ny
1.1 76.9 °F —

5 mapped access sites on the mainstem: 4 walk-in, 1 boat or canoe launches. Source: NYSDEC.

USGS gauges

Every gauge on the mainstem, upstream first. Links go to the USGS monitoring-location page for the site.

Public land on the river

1 unit of public or open-access land touches this river, 2,864 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.

Unit Owner Acres
Erie Canal another state agency 2,864

Species

NYSDEC designates this as trout water — Trout spawning waters, Trout waters — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.

Historical July mean

The measured record behind every temperature band on this page: the mean of the daily means for July, at each gauge, over the years USGS has one.

Gauge July mean July range Julys
Ilion Ny 75.0 °F 13.3 °F 6
Mohawk R above State Highway 30A at Fonda Ny 77.5 °F 9.7 °F 4
Mohawk R Blw Pepper Island at Fort Johnson Ny 76.9 °F 14.9 °F 8
Amsterdam Ny 77.2 °F 11.9 °F 5
Lock 9 at Rotterdam Junction Ny 78.7 °F 11.9 °F 5
Lock 8 near Schenectady Ny 78.1 °F 15.3 °F 7
Rexford Ny 78.5 °F 16.9 °F 6
Diversion To Power Plant at Cohoes Ny 76.9 °F 14.9 °F 8
Cohoes Ny 79.4 °F 10.3 °F 3
Hudson River at Green Island Ny 76.9 °F 14.9 °F 8

Tributaries and watershed

2 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.

Mohawk River sits in HUC 8 02020004, the Mohawk basin, and drains 3,432 square miles, Strahler order 8 at the mouth. 352 NHD reaches carry the name for 158.0 miles in total — more than the 13.3 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.

Other water nearby

The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.