WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Porter Creek above Baptiste Lake in AB, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
Porter Creek above Baptiste Lake sits in the Central Athabasca - Tawatinaw watershed in Alberta.
The station record runs for more than 44 years, and the water has moved through a fairly narrow band in that time. The highest level in the file is 7.68 m (25.21 ft) in March 2024, and the lowest is 6.45 m (21.16 ft) in April 2018. For someone with a dock, intake, or low bank access, that spread matters: the creek can sit well above its low-water mark, but it also has room to climb.
The seasonal pattern is modest. The highest typical month is April at 6.66 m (21.86 ft), and the lowest typical month is February at 6.5 m (21.31 ft). The typical annual swing is 16.7 cm (6.6 in). That is a small shift for most ordinary use, but small changes still matter when water is shallow at an intake or when ice and debris are in play during shoulder seasons.
The drainage area above this station is 51.6 km2 (19.9 sq mi). That is the land feeding this gauge, not the whole named watershed. In this part of Alberta, the broad seasonal pattern is usually late-spring rise from snowmelt, with summer storms able to push water up quickly when they hit the basin hard. The record here fits the calendar pattern more than a dramatic flood cycle: April is the typical high month, and February is the typical low month.
The hero number on this page is most useful when it is read against the median for this calendar day, not as a raw elevation on its own. A level can look ordinary in isolation and still be high or low for the date, which is what matters for bank access, pumping, and fishing water. With more than 44 years of record at station 07BE003, that date-based comparison gives a better sense of where Porter Creek stands today than a single number by itself.
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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