WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Buffalo Cove at Round Island near Charenton in LA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Buffalo Cove at Round Island near Charenton is a gauged river in the Atchafalaya watershed, Louisiana.
This station sits on the Atchafalaya side of coastal Louisiana, where water can stay high after rain and wind because drainage is slow. For people living nearby, that means the level on one day can matter as much as the peak itself.
The seasonal pattern is clear. The highest typical month is May at 8.94 ft (2.73 m), and the lowest typical month is November at 3.05 ft (0.93 m). The typical annual swing is 5.9 ft (1.8 m), so docks, bank access, and shallow approaches have to handle a fairly wide range through the year.
The record high is 17.12 ft (5.22 m) in May 2011. The record low is 0.35 ft (0.11 m) in November 2022. Those two points show how far this reach can move outside its usual band.
With 30 years on record, the monthly pattern is useful on its own, but the extremes are what matter when you are deciding whether to launch, move gear, or keep an eye on a low crossing. The gulf lowland setting also means that rainfall flooding and hurricane-season surges can keep levels elevated for days.
The hero number on this page should be read against the median for this calendar day, not against an absolute elevation. That comparison tells you whether the river is running higher or lower than it usually does on the same date.
That is more useful than a raw reading because the same height can mean different things at different times of year. A number near the median suggests a familiar day for this reach; a number well above or below it tells you the river is behaving outside its normal seasonal range.
The data here come from the USGS, and the station’s 30 years on record give that comparison some weight.
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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