WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Mattagami River near Timmins in ON, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
The Mattagami River near Timmins is in the Mattagami watershed in Ontario.
The seasonal pattern here fits a snowmelt-driven river. The highest typical month is May at 3.01 m (9.86 ft), and the lowest typical month is August at 2.22 m (7.28 ft). That typical swing is 78.7 cm (31 in), which is the range a dock, pump intake, or low bank crossing has to live with from one part of the year to another.
For people using the river, spring is the time to watch for higher water first, then a gradual easing into summer. By late summer, levels are typically lower, and early winter usually brings a decline as ice forms. That rhythm matters for shore access, shallow launches, and any setup that sits close to the waterline.
The highest recorded level is 5.93 m (19.47 ft), set in May 2019. The lowest recorded level is 1.97 m (6.46 ft), set in September 2005. Those two points show the full spread of what this station has seen over its 56 years on record.
I do not have a fastest 24-hour rise or drop for this site in the facts provided, so I will not guess at warning time. If you are watching the river for work, fishing, or access, the useful habit is to compare the current reading with the seasonal range above and with the record points, especially in spring and late summer.
The number shown on the page is most useful when you read it against the median for this calendar day across the station record, not as a raw water level by itself. A raw level can be hard to judge on its own, while the day-by-day median shows whether the river is running above, below, or near its usual position for this time of year.
That comparison is especially practical at a station with more than 56 years of record. It gives a better sense of how unusual today is for this river, which is what matters if you are checking access, flooding risk, or changing conditions along the Mattagami.
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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