WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Coal Creek near Cedar City in UT, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Coal Creek near Cedar City is a river in the Escalante Desert of Utah.
The gauge drains 80.9 sq mi (210 km2) upstream of the station, so this is the part of the creek that sets the number people here see.
For anyone watching a bridge, bank, or diversion, the range matters more than the name on the map. The record high is 12.23 ft (3.73 m) in December 2007, and the record low is 4.2 ft (1.28 m) in September 2022. Between those two ends, the creek has enough room to change the shape of the channel people have to work with, even when the weather looks settled.
The seasonal pattern is clear. The typical high month is May at 5.52 ft (1.68 m), and the typical low month is September at 4.68 ft (1.43 m). The typical annual swing is 10.2 in (25.8 cm), which is the change a dock, bank, or intake has to handle over the year.
This is a snowmelt-dominated mountain and basin creek, so the spring rise is the one to watch. The regional pattern points to an April-June peak, then a long dry-season low flow. Late-summer monsoon thunderstorms can still push sharp local rises, so short floods are possible even when the base flow is small.
On this station, the history is long enough to show the main range of behaviour: 50 years on record. The highest and lowest monthly norms are only part of the story, because the creek has also reached a much higher record in December 2007 and a much lower record in September 2022.
No fastest 24-hour rise is available in the facts here, so the page should be read with the seasonal range and the record levels in mind.
The hero number on this page is best read as today’s stage compared with the median for this calendar day across the station’s record. That is more useful than raw elevation, because a stage of the same height can mean very different things in May than it does in September.
For this site, the source is USGS, and the record spans about 50 years. That long record is what gives the daily median meaning: it shows whether the creek is running above or below its normal place for this date, not just how high the water sits in feet.
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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