WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
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Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Battle C 1.0 MI AB Mouth near Homer AK in AK, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Battle Creek in the Lower Kenai Peninsula watershed, Alaska, is a USGS river gauge near Homer.
The record high is 12.77 ft (3.89 m) in December 2019. The record low is 9.56 ft (2.92 m) in March 2025. Those two marks sit within a range that matters for docks, pumps, and any intake set close to the water.
The seasonal pattern is modest but clear. The highest typical month is May at 10.54 ft (3.21 m), and the lowest typical month is March at 9.91 ft (3.02 m). The typical annual swing is 7.6 in (19.2 cm). For a river user, that says the day-to-day range is not the main issue; the timing of spring rise and late-winter low water is.
I do not have a fastest 24-hour rise value to report here, so I will not guess at warning time.
This station belongs to the Lower Kenai Peninsula watershed, but the drainage area used at a gauge is the land upstream of this station, not the whole named watershed. For people using the river near Homer, the useful question is less about the basin name and more about how the level at this point behaves through the year.
The regional note for this part of Alaska is seasonal rather than local proof: spring breakup and snowmelt often drive the annual flood, while winter low flows are common under ice. That is the broad setting around this gauge, but the record here is what matters on the bank.
The hero number on this page is the current reading compared with the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is more useful than raw elevation because a height that looks ordinary in one month can be high or low for another.
This gauge has 16 years of record, so the day-of-year comparison already carries some local memory. It lets you see whether Battle Creek is running above or below its usual level for this date, which is what matters when you are judging access, bank margin, or whether a low-water crossing may change through the day.
Because the site is operated by the US Geological Survey, the current value is best read as a live position relative to the river’s own history, not as an isolated number.
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 in a growing number of countries. Built on official government data.
Nibi Metrics tracks more than 17,900 gauged lakes and rivers in a growing number of countries, reading directly from official federal monitoring networks: the Water Survey of Canada, the United States Geological Survey, Quebec's provincial hydrometric network, the Environment Agency for England, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, the Office of Public Works in Ireland (waterlevel.ie), the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE), the State of Queensland's water monitoring network, and on the Great Lakes the Canadian Hydrographic Service and NOAA. 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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