Smothers Creek near Plainville, in Water Level
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Smothers Creek near Plainville, in in IN, United States, built from official government gauge data.
- Location IN, United States
- Watershed lower white 0202
- Primary gauge 03360600 (USGS)
About Smothers Creek near Plainville, in
Smothers Creek near Plainville, in is a river in the Lower White watershed in Indiana.
Season by season
The record here points to a late-winter and spring high-water season, with the typical high month in March at 6.26 ft (1.91 m). By August, the typical level drops to 4.96 ft (1.51 m). That seasonal spread is 15.7 in (39.8 cm), which is the range a dock, bank crossing, or shallow intake has to live with through the year.
For the Lower White region, that pattern fits the broader calendar: winter and spring can bring rain floods when the ground is saturated or frozen, summer can bring short storm pulses, and fall often settles into lower flow. On this creek, the monthly pattern says the quietest stretch is usually late summer, not midwinter.
Records and rises
The highest level in the record is 17.42 ft (5.31 m) in June 2015. The lowest is 4.57 ft (1.39 m) in September 2020. That gap shows the creek can move from a shallow late-summer condition to a much higher June stage.
The station has 12 years on record, so these extremes matter, but they are still part of a short history. A longer record would sharpen the picture, yet even here the range is enough to tell a landowner or angler that this creek can change quickly across seasons.
No fastest 24-hour rise is listed in the facts, so there is nothing firm to say about warning time from this station.
Reading the hero number
The hero number on this page is best read against the median for this same calendar day, not as a raw level by itself. A single stage reading can look high or low in isolation; compared with the day-of-year median, it shows whether the creek is running above its usual seasonal mark for right now.
This station is operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. With more than 12 years on record, that daily comparison is the cleaner way to judge what today means for Smothers Creek than a plain elevation number alone.
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 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.
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.
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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.
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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