WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Mf Salmon River at MF Lodge near Yellow Pine ID in ID, United States, built from official government gauge data.
The Middle Fork Salmon River at MF Lodge near Yellow Pine sits in the Upper Middle Fork Salmon watershed, Idaho.
The station’s record high is 8.61 ft (2.62 m), set in June 2017. The record low is 1.17 ft (0.36 m), set in December 2018. That is a wide spread for a river gauge, and it matters for anyone watching access, bank exposure, or intake settings.
Seasonally, the highest typical month is May at 4.82 ft (1.47 m), while the lowest typical month is February at 1.54 ft (0.47 m). The typical annual swing is 3.3 ft (1 m). In practice, that means the river asks systems along it to handle a noticeable rise and fall each year.
The catchment above this station is 1042 sq mi (2699 km2), which is the area draining to the gauge, not the watershed as a whole.
For a mountain-snowmelt river, that size of upstream area helps explain why the spring rise can be the main event for the year, with lower late-summer water levels then narrowing the margin for docks, pumps, and fish passage. The station’s seasonal pattern fits that broad rhythm: higher in May, lower in February, with a 3.3 ft (1 m) swing between the typical endpoints.
The hero number is the current river reading, set against the median for this calendar day across the station record. That comparison is more useful than raw elevation because it tells you whether today is ordinary for the date, high for the date, or low for the date.
This station is a USGS site with more than 50 years on record. For a river used by cottagers, anglers, and anyone checking water levels, the day-of-year median is the better cue for what the river is doing now.
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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