Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Elk Creek below Deer Creek near Doty in WA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Elk Creek below Deer Creek near Doty is a gauged river in the Upper Chehalis watershed, Washington.
This gauge has more than 16 years of record, and the seasonal shape is modest but real. The highest month is January, with a typical level of 304.61 ft (92.85 m), while the lowest month is October, with a typical level of 301.25 ft (91.82 m). That span is only 3.4 ft (1.02 m), so the river usually stays within a fairly tight band through the year.
For someone using this creek, that means the winter high is not a separate world from the autumn low; the reach tends to move in a limited range rather than swinging hard from one season to the next. The 58 sq mi (150 km2) above the station is the area feeding this reading, so changes upstream can show up here quickly enough to matter for a bank, a crossing, or a small intake.
The highest level in the record is 310.4 ft (94.61 m), reached in January 2015. The lowest is 297.72 ft (90.75 m), reached in October 2022. Those bookends show the full range this station has seen, and they are useful if you are checking how far current water is from the edges of the historical record.
A winter record high matters for people watching the creek near roads or low banks, while the October record low is the kind of level anglers notice when cover thins and shallow edges shrink. With 16 years on record, the gauge has enough history to show what is ordinary here and what is not.
The U.S. Geological Survey runs the gauge.
The hero number compares today’s reading with the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is more useful than raw height alone because it tells you whether the creek is running above, below, or near its usual level for this date. For a local user, that seasonal context is what helps with fishing plans, bank access, and watching whether the river is behaving normally for the time of year.
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 23,050 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, the Bureau of Reclamation, 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, the State of Victoria's, the State of South Australia's, the Northern Territory's and the State of Western Australia's water monitoring networks, the French State's hydrometric network (Vigicrues, through Hub'Eau), the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration's gauges (WSV, through PEGELONLINE), 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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