WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW
—— ft above typical
Finding the top signal on the water…
Live river level, flow, historical records and forecast for Twelvemile Bayou near Dixie in LA, United States, built from official government gauge data.
Twelvemile Bayou near Dixie is a gauged river in the Cross Bayou watershed, Louisiana.
The station drains 3,137 sq mi (8,125 km2) upstream of the gauge. That is a large enough catchment for water levels to stay elevated after rainfall, which matters for road crossings, low banks, and any intake or dock that depends on steady access. In this part of Louisiana, high water can linger because drainage is slow, and hurricane-season rain can keep the bayou up for days.
This gauge has 50 years on record, so its monthly pattern is worth watching. The highest typical month is March at 16.29 ft (4.97 m), while the lowest typical month is October at 9.91 ft (3.02 m). The typical annual swing is 6.4 ft (1.94 m). For anyone living or fishing here, that is the range a boat ramp, dock, or shallow reach has to tolerate through the year.
The record high is 41 ft (12.5 m), reached in March 2016. The record low is 8.38 ft (2.56 m), reached in August 2025. Those two marks show how far the bayou can move within the same station record, from a low late-summer level to a much higher spring crest.
The seasonal shape is not subtle: March is the usual high point, and October the usual low point. That means conditions can change enough across the year to affect how far up the bank water reaches and how much clearance is left under a crossing or along a landing.
The hero number on this page compares today’s reading with the median for this calendar day across the USGS record. That is more useful than raw elevation because the same level can mean different things in different seasons. A reading that is ordinary in March may be high for October, and the calendar-day median shows that difference at a glance. With more than 50 years of record at this USGS station, that comparison is a practical way to judge where the bayou stands today.
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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