Palo Duro Creek near Spearman Water Level

Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Palo Duro Creek near Spearman in TX, United States, built from official government gauge data.

About Palo Duro Creek near Spearman

Palo Duro Creek near Spearman sits in the Palo Duro watershed in Texas.

Season by season

The creek’s typical level is close from June to November, with June at 2.51 ft (0.76 m) and November at 2.49 ft (0.76 m). That is a small seasonal swing of 0.2 in (0.5 cm), so the day-to-day profile is usually steady rather than strongly seasonal.

For people using the water, that means the usual stage does not change much across the year. In a flash-flood regime, though, the quiet stretches can be broken quickly by rainfall-driven rises measured in hours, so a low reading can change fast after a storm.

Records and rises

The record high is 19.19 ft (5.85 m) in June 2010. The record low is 1.29 ft (0.39 m) in November 2010.

Those two records show how far the creek can move outside its usual band. For anyone watching a crossing, pump, or bank line, that is the range that matters more than the day-to-day norm. No fastest 24-hour rise is listed here, so the page does not add a warning-time figure.

Reading the hero number

The hero number on this page is today’s reading compared with the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is the better number because raw elevation alone does not say whether the creek is high, low, or normal for this date.

This is a USGS station with more than 50 years on record. When you compare today’s level with the calendar-day median, you are seeing how the creek is behaving relative to its own history, not just how many feet are in the channel right now.

How this page is built

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.

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Nibi Metrics - live water levels, flow, and forecasts for lakes and rivers across Canada, the US and the UK

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.

What you can see for any monitored lake or river

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.

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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.

Where Nibi comes from

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.

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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.

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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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