Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Mulhockaway Creek at Van Syckel NJ in NJ, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Mulhockaway Creek in the Raritan watershed, New Jersey.
The record spans more than 49 years at this USGS station. The highest level in that record was 3.35 ft (1.02 m) in August 2011, and the lowest was 0.13 ft (0.04 m) in August 2024. That is a wide spread for a small creek, and it tells you the creek can move from very low water to a much higher stage within the same calendar season.
The seasonal pattern is clear too. The typical high month is March at 0.82 ft (0.25 m), and the typical low month is September at 0.52 ft (0.16 m). The typical annual swing is 3.6 in (9.1 cm). For a dock, pump intake, or bank access point, that means late winter and early spring usually hold more water, while late summer is the time to expect shallower conditions.
This station drains 11.8 sq mi (30.6 km2) upstream of the gauge. That is the area that feeds the readings here, not the whole Raritan watershed.
For this part of New Jersey, the monthly pattern fits a Mid-Atlantic river: winter and spring are the wetter stretch, summer is usually lower, and the biggest events often come with tropical systems or their remnants. On this creek, the record does not need much explanation to matter. A low August reading can affect shallow crossings, watering points, and fish cover. A March rise is the level people watch when they are trying to judge bank access or whether conditions are turning quickly upstream.
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 the raw water level alone, because a stage of 0.60 ft (0.18 m) can mean very different things in March than it does in September.
USGS uses the longer record here, and this station has more than 49 years of observations. The day-by-day median puts today in local context: whether the creek is running above, near, or below what is normal for this date at this gauge.
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 19,410 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, the State of Victoria's, the State of South Australia's, the Northern Territory's and the State of Western Australia's water monitoring networks, the French State's hydrometric network (Vigicrues, through Hub'Eau), the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration's gauges (WSV, through PEGELONLINE), 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.
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