Garnock at Kilbirnie Water Level
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Garnock at Kilbirnie in Scotland, United Kingdom, built from official government gauge data.
- Location Scotland, United Kingdom
- Primary gauge sepa-494257 (Water Survey of Canada)
About Garnock at Kilbirnie
Garnock at Kilbirnie is a gauged river in Scotland.
What the record shows
The station has more than 13 years on record, so its high and low marks sit within a relatively short archive. The record high is 1.82 m (5.98 ft), set in August 2020. The record low is 0.33 m (1.07 ft), set in June 2023.
For anyone watching a bank, intake, or landing, those two marks set the outer edges of what this reach has already done. A summer record high is the kind of number that matters when rain comes hard and fast. The low-water mark matters just as much for shallow access, pumps, and fish holding in the warm season.
The seasonal pattern is narrower than the records. December is the highest typical month at 0.71 m (2.34 ft), while May is the lowest typical month at 0.46 m (1.5 ft). The typical annual swing is 25.4 cm (10 in), which is enough to notice at a dock or gauge board, but not a wild year-to-year shift in ordinary conditions.
The watershed
The gauge drains 22.3 km2 (8.6 sq mi) upstream of the station. That is the area feeding this reading, so changes in rainfall over that ground show up here first.
The regional pattern here is rain-led. Winter and spring rains usually set the higher end of the cycle, while warm-season low water can linger. In this basin, that means the river may spend long stretches near its lower seasonal range, then rise quickly when weather turns wet.
Reading the hero number
The number shown on the page is the latest reading, compared with the median for this calendar day across the station’s record. That is more useful than raw elevation because the same level can mean different things in December than it does in May.
For the Garnock, the day-median comparison tells you whether today is ordinary for this date, running high for the season, or sitting below the usual range. Water Survey of Scotland’s SEPA station record is the right frame here because it puts today’s level beside what this river has tended to do on the same day, over more than 13 years.
How this page is built
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.
How Nibi Metrics works · Water stories
Nibi Metrics - live water levels, flow, and forecasts for lakes and rivers across Canada, the US and the UK
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.
What you can see for any monitored lake or river
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.
Alerts that watch the water for you
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.
Where Nibi comes from
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.
Coverage
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.
Free forever, funded by members
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.
Water Stories
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How every number is computed - About the platform
