WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Omands Creek near Empress Street East in MB, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
Omands Creek in the Lower Assiniboine - Mouth watershed in Manitoba.
The creek’s record high is 4.58 m (15.01 ft), set in April 2022, and the record low is 2.93 m (9.62 ft), set in March 2018. That span is what this reach has actually asked people to live with: from banks and low crossings under stress in one season to a much lower stage in another.
The seasonal pattern is small but clear. April is the typical high month at 3.88 m (12.71 ft), while February is the typical low month at 3.66 m (12 ft). The typical annual swing is 21.6 cm (8.5 in), so docks, intakes, and any fixed bank access here should be built with that movement in mind.
The fastest 24-hour rise on record is 40.1 cm (15.8 in), in May 2022. For anyone watching for water coming up, that is the warning time this creek can give: a sharp day-over-day change is enough to matter for a low driveway, a pump intake, or a short stretch of bank that you expect to stay usable.
The station drains 67.5 km2 (26.1 sq mi) above the gauge. That is the area feeding this reading, not the whole larger watershed name on the page.
This is Prairie hydrology, so spring snowmelt floods are the main event to watch in the region, with summer recession after that. Here, the record and the seasonal pattern both fit a waterway that can move quickly in one window and then settle back to a lower range later in the year.
The hero number on this page should be read against the median for the same calendar day across the station’s 12 years on record. That is more useful than raw elevation alone because it tells you whether today is ordinary for this date, or sitting high or low relative to the creek’s own history.
If the page is showing a current stage, compare it to that day-of-year median first, then use the record high, record low, and the 40.1 cm (15.8 in) one-day rise as the practical guide to what this water can do.
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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