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Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for L Humboldt River Blw Chimney DM near Paradise Valley NV in NV, United States, built from official government gauge data.
The L Humboldt River below Chimney Dam near Paradise Valley sits in the Little Humboldt watershed in Nevada.
The station record runs for more than 50 years. The highest level on file is 3.72 ft (1.13 m) in April 2024, and the lowest is 1.6 ft (0.49 m) in January 2025. For someone watching a bank, dock, or diversion, that span matters more than a single reading because it shows how far this reach has moved within the record.
The seasonal pattern is clear. The typical high month is May at 3.11 ft (0.95 m), while the typical low month is February at 1.69 ft (0.52 m). The usual annual swing is 17 in (43.1 cm). That is the range this river asks channels, banks, and intakes to handle through the year.
The gauge drains 780 sq mi (2020 km2) upstream of this station. That area is what feeds the reading here, not the broader Little Humboldt name on the map.
For this part of Nevada, the regional rhythm is spring snowmelt on perennial rivers, with summer thunderstorms capable of local flash floods. Many channels are ephemeral. For this station, the record shows a spring high month and a winter low month, which is the pattern you would expect to watch when planning for access, irrigation, or crossing conditions.
Today’s reading should be judged against the median for this calendar day at this station, not against the raw water-surface elevation alone. A single elevation number can look high or low without context; the median shows whether the river is behaving normally for this date.
This page is based on USGS data, and the record length is more than 50 years. For daily use, that comparison is the useful one: it tells you how this reading sits within the station’s own history.
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 17,900 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, 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 water monitoring network, 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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