WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Soquel C A Soquel CA in CA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Soquel Creek sits in the Monterey Bay watershed in California.
The station record runs for 50 years, and the extremes are clear. The highest water level reached 11.72 ft (3.57 m) in December 2022. The lowest reached 1.16 ft (0.35 m) in August 2014.
The usual seasonal pattern is much narrower than those records. The highest typical month is March at 2.73 ft (0.83 m), while the lowest typical month is September at 2.21 ft (0.67 m). That typical annual swing is 6.3 in (16 cm), so the ordinary gap between late-winter and late-summer conditions is modest compared with the record range.
For anyone watching a crossing, intake, or bank, the record high says this creek can leave its usual band by a wide margin. The record low says late-summer water can sit far below the wetter months.
The station drains 40.2 sq mi (104 km2) upstream of the gauge. That is the area feeding this reading, not the whole Monterey Bay watershed.
Seasonally, this is a creek with a March high and a September low. The regional pattern in California is spring and early-summer snowmelt peaks, winter storms bringing major floods, and long dry summers with very low flows. The record here fits the dry-season low and the winter high, but the month-to-month swing at this station is still small in an average year.
The hero number on this page should be read against the median for the same calendar day, not as a raw water level by itself. That comparison shows whether Soquel Creek is running above or below its usual date-specific level.
This station is published by the U.S. Geological Survey, and the 50-year record gives that comparison some context. When the page reading is near the median, conditions are typical for that date. When it sits far above or below, the difference matters more than the absolute elevation on its own.
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.
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