WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Allegheny River (lower pool) at Kittanning in PA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Allegheny River (lower pool) at Kittanning is a gauged river in the Middle Allegheny-Redbank watershed, Pennsylvania.
The station has 10 years on record, which is enough to show the range this reach can cover, even if it is still a short window in river terms.
The record high is 25.67 ft (7.82 m), set in April 2024. For anyone with a dock, a low landing, or a pump set near the bank, that is the kind of stage that can change access quickly.
The record low is 9.58 ft (2.92 m), set in January 2018. Low water here is part of the station’s normal spread, not an outlier.
Seasonally, the highest typical month is April at 14.66 ft (4.47 m), while the lowest typical month is September at 10.01 ft (3.05 m). The typical annual swing is 4.7 ft (1.42 m), so the river’s day-to-day use changes across the year even before storms are added.
This station sits in the Middle Allegheny-Redbank watershed. In this part of Pennsylvania, winter and spring are the months to watch for the year’s higher water, with summer typically bringing lower flows. Late-summer storms can still bring sharp rises.
That pattern matters on the ground. April is the month that most often carries the higher water at this site, while September is the usual low point. If you fish, that means access and current can change a lot between spring and late summer. If you keep a shoreline intake or a dock line here, the 4.7 ft (1.42 m) typical swing is the first number to keep in mind.
The hero number on this page is today’s reading, set against the median for this calendar day across the station’s record. That is the better way to read the river because it tells you whether the stage is unusually high or low for this date, not just where it sits above sea level.
This station is operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. With 10 years on record, the day-by-day median gives a cleaner sense of what is normal here than a single raw reading does.
Readings come from official government gauges and are rolled into daily records: the daily mean, high and low for every day on record. Each calendar day gets its own baseline from the full history, so the level you see is compared against what this specific date usually looks like rather than an annual average.
Real-time water levels, forecasts, and alerts for lakes and rivers across Canada, the US and the UK. Built on official government data.
Nibi Metrics tracks more than 13,000 gauged lakes and rivers across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, reading directly from official federal monitoring networks: the Water Survey of Canada, the United States Geological Survey, Quebec's provincial hydrometric network, and the Environment Agency for England. Every number on the platform is measured, not modelled - taken from a government gauge on the water itself and compared against that location's own historical record for this exact date.
The level right now, in feet or metres, updated as the source agency publishes new readings - for many stations that is every five to fifteen minutes. How today compares to typical: every location carries its own typical-for-this-date band built from its historical record, so a reading is never just a number - it is above, below, or near what this water usually does on this calendar day. Which way it is moving: a measured RISING, FALLING, or STEADY verdict computed from the gauge's own recent readings, with the rate of change - the difference between a flood ending and one beginning. What comes next: level forecasts up to 72 hours ahead, driven by the gauge's recent behaviour, upstream water, and quantitative precipitation forecasts, alongside live radar, lightning, and weather for the surrounding region.
Set a threshold on any location - a level, a distance above typical, or a rate of climb - and Nibi emails or notifies you the moment the gauge crosses it. Cottagers use it for spring freshet, anglers for river conditions, marinas and municipalities for operations. The scanning runs around the clock against the same measured data shown on every page.
Nibi means water in Anishinaabemowin. The platform began at a family cottage on Lake Muskoka, Ontario, where the spring melt floods the shoreline most years and the only forecast was standing on the dock, looking, and guessing. It grew into an independent, member-funded platform run by Muskoka Research Inc. - no investors, no data resale, and a privacy policy shorter than most cookie banners. The core data is free for everyone, forever; paid plans add automation like multi-location alerts, deep history, and reports.
Nibi spans the continent: every Canadian province and territory with active federal gauges - from Vancouver Island rivers to the Muskoka lakes, prairie reservoirs, and Quebec's hydrometric network - and the United States from Maine to the Texas Hill Country, the Ohio Valley, and the Pacific Northwest. Coverage grows where the water news is: when a basin floods, its gauges join the platform with their full historical records attached. Many stations report every five to fifteen minutes; most report at least hourly; every page states exactly when its gauge last spoke.
The core promise is simple: the water data is free, for everyone, forever. Live levels, maps, radar, and recent history never sit behind a paywall. Paid plans fund the platform by adding automation - multi-location alerts, decades of history, longer forecasts, and PDF reports - so the people who need more carry the cost for everyone who just needs to check the lake before driving up. There are no investors and no advertising deals shaping what the data says.
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