WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Slaughter Creek at FM 2304 near Austin in TX, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Slaughter Creek in the Austin-Travis Lakes watershed, Texas, is a USGS river station in central Texas.
The record high is 5.68 ft (1.73 m), set in October 2013. The record low is -0.22 ft (-0.07 m), set in August 2016. Over the record, the seasonal range is small: the typical highest month is May at 0.77 ft (0.24 m), and the typical lowest month is July at 0.7 ft (0.21 m). The typical annual swing is 0.9 in (2.3 cm).
That tells you this creek usually moves within a tight band, but it has also been pushed much higher than the seasonal pattern would suggest. For people watching a low-water crossing, a bank access, or a small intake, the day-to-day shape matters less than the jumps that can follow rain. In flash-flood country, those changes can happen fast.
The station drains 23.1 sq mi (59.8 km2) above the gauge. That is the area feeding this reading, not the full watershed name on the page. With more than 23 years on record, the station gives a useful local baseline for what this reach usually does and what it can do in a wet event.
For cottagers, anglers, and anyone with property near the channel, the main lesson is timing. A creek with a modest seasonal swing can still turn sharply after heavy rain, then settle back into its low-flow pattern.
Today’s hero number is best read against the median for this calendar day, not as a raw elevation by itself. A single height can look ordinary or alarming without the context of what this station usually carries on the same date.
That median comparison is stronger because it shows whether today sits near the normal range for this day in the USGS record at Slaughter Creek at FM 2304 near Austin. On a station with more than 23 years of observations, that is the cleaner way to judge whether the creek is running near its usual level or outside it.
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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