WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Garcia R at Eureka Hill Road near PT Arena CA in CA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Garcia R at Eureka Hill Road near PT Arena CA is a gauged river in the Big-Navarro-Garcia watershed in California.
This gauge watches 83.2 sq mi (216 km2) upstream of the station, so it reflects the part of the Garcia that drains toward the road crossing, not the whole regional basin. For people living or fishing here, that upstream area is the part that sets how quickly the river responds after rain and how long it stays low once storms pass.
The seasonal pattern is clear in the record. January is the highest typical month at 4.06 ft (1.24 m), while September is the lowest typical month at 2.28 ft (0.69 m). That kind of spread matters at a crossing, a bank access, or a shallow riffle: the river is not at the same working level all year.
The station’s record high is 14.61 ft (4.45 m), reached in February 2019. The record low is 1.46 ft (0.45 m), reached in October 2024. Those two marks show the range this reach has already shown in a little more than 11 years of record.
The typical annual swing is 21.3 in (54.2 cm). That is the practical number for anyone setting a dock, reading a bank, or judging whether a run will hold enough water through the dry part of the year. In a mountain-fed system, the seasonal note points to spring and early-summer highs and long dry-summer lows, but the local record here also shows a strong January peak and a September minimum.
The hero figure on this page compares today’s level with the median for this calendar day from the USGS record. That is more useful than raw elevation because the same number can mean very different things in January and September.
USGS has more than 11 years of record at this station, so the day-by-day median is anchored in a local history, not a one-off storm. If today sits above that median, the river is running higher than usual for this date; if it sits below, it is lower than the usual seasonal mark for the same day.
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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