Qu'appelle River below Craven Dam Water Level
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Qu'appelle River below Craven Dam in Canada, SK, Canada, built from official government gauge data.
- Location Canada, SK, Canada
- Watershed central qu appelle loon
- Primary gauge 05JK002 (Water Survey of Canada)
About Qu'appelle River below Craven Dam
Qu'appelle River below Craven Dam is in the Central Qu'Appelle - Loon watershed in Saskatchewan.
The watershed
This gauge sits on a river reach used to track how water changes through the Central Qu'Appelle - Loon basin. The station drains an area above the gauge of 32700 km2 (12626 sq mi), so the reading reflects a large upstream response rather than one small local pocket.
For people living or fishing downstream, that matters because the river can change quickly. The fastest 24-hour rise in the record was 1.69 m (5.5 ft) in April 2023, which is the kind of jump that can leave very little time to adjust a dock, a bank access, or an intake. The fastest 24-hour drop was 65.4 cm (25.7 in) in April 2025.
What the numbers say
The long record runs more than 98 years, so the seasonal pattern here is well established. The highest typical month is May at 1.48 m (4.85 ft), and the lowest typical month is November at 1.15 m (3.78 ft). That typical annual swing is 32.6 cm (12.8 in), which is a modest change compared with the record extremes but still enough to matter for shallow access and fixed installations.
The record high was 4.2 m (13.78 ft) in April 2011. The record low was 0.57 m (1.87 ft) in October 2018. Those two ends of the record show the range this station can cover over time, even if most years stay much closer to the seasonal norm.
Reading the hero number
The hero number on this page is most useful when it is compared with the median for the same calendar day, not just read as a raw elevation. A level on its own does not say whether the river is running high, low, or near its usual place for this date; the day-of-year median does.
That is the better reference for anyone checking a dock, crossing, or fishable reach, because it puts today’s reading into the station’s own seasonal context.
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.
How Nibi Metrics works · Water stories
Nibi Metrics - live water levels, flow, and forecasts for 17,900+ lakes and rivers
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.
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.
Alerts that watch the water for you
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.
Coverage
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.
Free forever, funded by members
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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