WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Mather Creek below Houle Creek in BC, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
Mather Creek below Houle Creek is a river in the Central Kootenay watershed in British Columbia.
The seasonal pattern is modest. The typical high month is May at 2.46 m (8.08 ft), and the typical low month is March at 2.17 m (7.13 ft). That is a typical annual swing of 29.1 cm (11.5 in), so the level change through the year is not large.
For someone watching a dock, crossing, or intake, that means the creek usually stays in a fairly tight band. In a mountain basin, spring is often the season to watch first, but this station’s record shows the month-to-month pattern plainly: May is the higher point, and March is the lower point.
The record high is 3.07 m (10.07 ft) in December 2016. The record low is -0.09 m (-0.29 ft) in February 2013.
Those two marks bracket what this gauge has seen over 54 years on record. For local use, the gap matters more than the headline number: water that can sit near the seasonal norm most of the year can still move well outside it in an extreme year.
No fastest 24-hour rise is listed here, so there is no short-term rise figure to use as warning time for this station.
The number on the page is most useful when it is compared with the median for the same calendar day, not just read as a raw elevation. A raw level by itself can hide whether the creek is running near its usual seasonal state or standing well above or below it.
On a station with 54 years of record, that calendar-day comparison gives the better local context for cottagers, anglers, and flood-watchers. Water Survey of Canada uses that kind of record-based framing to show where today sits against 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 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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