WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Tulpehocken Cr at Blue Marsh Damsite near Reading in PA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Tulpehocken Creek in the Schuylkill watershed of Pennsylvania is monitored at Blue Marsh Damsite near Reading.
The station has 50 years on record, and the range is wide enough to matter for docks, intakes, and access points. The record high is 10.19 ft (3.11 m), set in September 2011. The record low is 2.26 ft (0.69 m), set in March 2010.
The seasonal pattern is modest but real. The highest typical month is October at 3.38 ft (1.03 m), while the lowest typical month is November at 2.84 ft (0.87 m). That typical annual swing is 6.5 in (16.4 cm), so day-to-day changes are usually smaller than the gap between the monthly high and low, but the record range shows the creek can still leave its normal band.
For people living nearby, this means the creek is usually close to a steady level, but it has also reached much higher water in the record. Fall is the month to watch in the long-term pattern, and late summer to early fall is when high water can still arrive fast in this part of the country.
The station drains 175 sq mi (453 km2) upstream of the gauge. That is the area feeding the reading here, not the whole Schuylkill basin.
This is Appalachian and piedmont hydrology: winter-spring rain and melt set the annual peaks, while summer low flows are part of the normal cycle. In this region, late-summer floods can also arrive with tropical remnants, so a calm stretch in August does not guarantee a quiet season. For anglers, that seasonal shift changes water depth and current. For farmers and cottagers, it affects crossings, runoff timing, and how much margin a low intake or bank-side access has.
The hero number on this page is most useful when read against the median for the same calendar day, not as a raw elevation by itself. A single water level can look high or low on its own, but the day-of-year median shows whether the creek is running above or below its usual seasonal mark for today.
This station is published by the U.S. Geological Survey, and the 50-year record gives that comparison real weight.
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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