WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Main Drain near Dominion City in MB, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
Main Drain near Dominion City is in the Roseau watershed in Manitoba.
The gauge drains 202 km2 (78 sq mi) upstream of the station. That is the area feeding this reading, not the whole Roseau system.
For people tracking water here, the long record matters. The station has 66 years on record. The highest level in that record was 239.51 m (785.78 ft) in July 2005. The lowest was 234.69 m (769.99 ft) in May 2018.
The seasonal pattern is clear. The highest typical month is November at 237.3 m (778.55 ft), and the lowest typical month is September at 235.27 m (771.9 ft). The typical swing between those two is 2.03 m (6.7 ft).
That range is the part to watch if you use docks, crossings, intakes, or low banks near the water. Levels here can sit more than 2 m apart between the seasonal high and low months, so a setup that works in one part of the year may need room to move in another.
The record high and record low also show the spread this station has seen over time: 4.82 m (15.79 ft) between the two endpoints.
The hero number on this page is today’s reading set against the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is more useful than raw elevation alone because it tells you whether today is ordinary for the date, high for the season, or low for the season.
For a station with more than 66 years on record, that day-by-day context is what helps Water Survey of Canada users judge whether the water is behaving normally for this time of year, not just where it sits on the scale.
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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