Browns Creek, stream and groundwater temperatures

Browns Creek is one of about a dozen remaining trout streams at the fringe of the Minneapolis-St. Paul (Twin Cities) metropolitan area in east-central Minnesota. The stream is tributary to the St. Croix River, a federally designated National Scenic Riverway, and therefore provides an important contribution to the biodiversity of the St. Croix’s watershed. The creek has been impacted by urban expansion of the nearby city of Stillwater, at the fringe of the rapidly growing Twin Cities metropolitan area. Runoff from urban impervious surfaces can raise summer water temperatures above those tolerated by trout. This dataset documents temperatures of both the surface water and groundwater (1.5 m below the stream bed) of the main stem and two main branches of Browns Creek. Temperatures were recorded hourly for the first few years, and at 6-hour increments beginning in autumn 2002. Data collection began in February 1999 and continues to the present, except for the south branch, where equipment was destroyed by a construction project in late 2002.