Trail Creek at Michigan City Harbor, in Water Level
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Trail Creek at Michigan City Harbor, in in IN, United States, built from official government gauge data.
- Location IN, United States
- Watershed little calumet galien
- Primary gauge 04095380 (USGS)
About Trail Creek at Michigan City Harbor, in
Trail Creek in the Little Calumet-Galien watershed, Indiana.
The watershed
The gauge sits on Trail Creek at Michigan City Harbor, in the Little Calumet-Galien watershed, and USGS has 32 years of record here. The drainage area above the station is 59.1 sq mi (153 km2), which is the land feeding this gauge upstream.
For people along the creek, the range matters more than the name. The record high is 9.83 ft (3 m), set in April 2020. The record low is 2.13 ft (0.65 m), set in February 2011. That spread is the difference between a channel carrying a lot of water and one running much lower than its top-end readings.
What the numbers say
The seasonal pattern is modest but real. The highest typical month is July at 6.84 ft (2.08 m), and the lowest typical month is December at 5.64 ft (1.72 m). The typical annual swing is 14.3 in (36.4 cm).
For dock owners, that means the water level does move enough through the year to matter at the edge. For anglers, July tends to sit above December in the record, but not by a dramatic amount. If you are watching for short-term change, the fastest 24-hour rise is not provided in the record here, so this page cannot speak to warning time from that metric.
Reading the hero number
The hero number on this page is today’s reading set beside the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is more useful than raw elevation because it tells you whether today is ordinary for this date, not just how high the water sits above a fixed datum.
USGS publishes this station, and the record covers more than 32 years. In practice, the daily comparison is the better cue for cottagers, anglers, and anyone checking access or bank conditions, because it places the current level in the context of this creek’s own seasonal history.
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.
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.
Water Stories
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How every number is computed - About the platform
