WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
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Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Owyhee River near Gold Creek in NV, United States, built from official government gauge data.
The Owyhee River near Gold Creek is in the Upper Owyhee watershed in Nevada.
The station drains 209 sq mi (541 km2) upstream, so the reading reflects what is happening in that part of the basin, not the whole watershed downstream.
For this reach, the seasonal pattern is clear. The highest typical month is July at 1.63 ft (0.5 m), and the lowest typical month is March at -0.09 ft (-0.03 m). That is a typical annual swing of 20.7 in (52.5 cm), which is the range a dock, intake, or crossing has to live with from one season to the next.
In the broader Great Basin pattern, perennial rivers often peak in spring from mountain snowmelt, while summer thunderstorms can bring short, sharp floods to local channels. This site’s record shows a river that can move well beyond its usual band when conditions line up.
The record high is 28.53 ft (8.7 m), set in February 2015. The record low is -0.27 ft (-0.08 m), set in December 2017. Those two marks are far apart, and that gap matters if you are watching for bankfull water, planning a low-water crossing, or checking how much room a channel has before it spills into places people use.
The key thing here is not just the peak or the lowest point. It is how often the river sits near its seasonal middle, then moves toward either extreme. On a small catchment like this, those shifts can show up quickly at the gauge.
This page’s hero number is most useful when you compare today’s reading with the median for this calendar day across the station record. That puts the river in context for this date instead of treating elevation as a stand-alone number.
USGS is the operating agency here, and the station has 50 years on record. For anyone checking access, fishing conditions, or flood margin, that date-matched comparison tells you whether the river is running high or low for the time of year, which is more useful than raw stage alone.
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 17,900 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 water monitoring network, 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.
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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