WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for River Wear at Durham New Elvet Bridge in England, United Kingdom, built from official government gauge data.
River Wear is a gauged river in England.
This station sits on the Wear at Durham New Elvet Bridge. With no watershed named in the record, the page has to stay with the gauge itself and the reach it measures.
For people using the river, the seasonal pattern is clear enough. The highest month in the record is January, at 0.45 m (1.49 ft), while the lowest month is July, at 0.23 m (0.77 ft). That is a typical annual swing of 21.9 cm (8.6 in), so docks, small craft, and bank-side access need to tolerate a modest but real change through the year.
The record also shows that the river can sit far outside its usual band. The highest level on record is 2.6 m (8.52 ft) in September 2008, and the lowest is 0.09 m (0.31 ft) in July 2025. Those two ends matter because they mark the range this station has actually seen.
The record here covers 21 years. That is enough to show a useful local pattern, even without a discharge series.
In temperate hydrology, higher water usually arrives in the spring window, then eases back in summer. On this gauge, the seasonal profile still points to winter as the higher period and July as the low point. The river’s record high in September 2008 stands apart from that usual shape, and the low in July 2025 sits in the part of the year when lower water is expected.
For anyone fishing or managing access, the main message is range. The river’s usual move through the year is 21.9 cm (8.6 in), but the recorded extremes are much wider than that. The Environment Agency station gives a long enough record to show what is normal here and what falls outside it.
The hero number on this page is the current reading compared with the median for this calendar day across the station’s record. That is more useful than raw elevation alone because a level only means something when you know what is normal for this date.
At this site, the current value should be read against more than 21 years of local history from the Environment Agency station. That lets you judge whether the river is running low, near typical, or well above the usual range for today.
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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