Trail Creek at Michigan City, in Water Level
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Trail Creek at Michigan City, in in IN, United States, built from official government gauge data.
- Location IN, United States
- Watershed little calumet galien
- Primary gauge 04095300 (USGS)
About Trail Creek at Michigan City, in
Trail Creek at Michigan City sits in the Little Calumet-Galien watershed in Indiana.
What the record shows
The record at this USGS station spans 50 years. The high-water mark is 12.03 ft (3.67 m), set in September 2008, and the low-water mark is 1.76 ft (0.54 m), set in September 2021.
The seasonal pattern is fairly tight compared with those extremes. March is the typical high month at 2.89 ft (0.88 m), while August is the typical low month at 2.08 ft (0.64 m). That typical annual swing is 9.7 in (24.7 cm), which is the spread a dock, crossing, or intake has to live with in an average year.
No fastest 24-hour rise is listed here, so there is nothing to read into on warning time from this station record.
The watershed
Trail Creek drains 54.1 sq mi (140 km2) above this station. That is the area that feeds the gauge, not the whole Little Calumet-Galien watershed.
For people living or fishing along the creek, that upstream area matters because water can move quickly from a relatively small catchment into a small channel. In this part of the Midwest, winter-spring rain on saturated or frozen ground can lift levels fast, summer convective storms can spike flows briefly, and fall often brings the lower end of the seasonal range.
Reading the hero number
The hero number on this page should be read as today’s level compared with the median for this calendar day across the station record. That is more useful than the raw elevation alone because it tells you whether the creek is running near its usual level for this date, not just how many feet are on the stick.
With more than 50 years on record, the USGS baseline here is long enough to separate an ordinary seasonal reading from something that is unusually high or low for the day.
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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