A quicker answer to "should we go out?"
Lakeglance pulls the wind forecast and water level for 2,915 lakes into one fast page each, and tells you plainly whether the day suits your boat.
Why we built it
Planning a day on a lake usually means four browser tabs: a weather app that shows the forecast for a town ten miles away, a government gauge page full of codes, a marina Facebook post about the ramp, and a guess. We wanted one page per lake that answers the real questions: how windy will it be on the water, is the lake up or down, and which day this week is best.
Who runs Lakeglance
Lakeglance is a small independent project. It is not run by a government agency, a lake operator, a boat maker or a marina, and no one pays to have a lake rated well. The site is free to use and is supported by advertising.
Where the data comes from
- Wind, gusts, temperature, rain and storms: the National Weather Service gridded forecast for the cell over each lake.
- Water level and water temperature: U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gauges, for the 773 lakes we can match to one.
- Satellite water level: NASA's SWOT satellite, which measures lake surfaces from orbit every 10 to 21 days, for 1,853 more lakes that have no gauge.
- Weather radar: NOAA's Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor composite, updated every few minutes.
- Lake outlines and areas: the USGS National Hydrography Dataset.
- Boat ramps, marinas and sailing clubs: OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers.
- Lake facts such as depth and year built: Wikidata and the operators' public records. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each photo.
All of it is public data. We do not change the numbers. We convert units, compare levels with each lake's own history, and apply the activity limits explained in how we score conditions.
How we check the data
Matching a gauge to a lake is where most lake sites go wrong, because many gauges sit on rivers below a dam or on a different lake with the same name. We only attach a gauge when it measures the lake itself: it has to sit on or right next to the lake's mapped shoreline, and its name has to agree with the lake. Lake outlines come from the National Hydrography Dataset rather than from guesses, and every lake photo was checked by eye to make sure it actually shows that lake. Every live reading is shown with the time it was taken, so an old number is never passed off as current.
How the site stays fast
Every page is plain HTML built ahead of time, refreshed daily with the latest water levels and forecast summaries. A small script then fetches the live numbers straight from the government sources when you open the page. There are no logins and no pop-ups. We count visits with Google Analytics. Ads, when shown, also come from Google; our privacy policy explains both and how to opt out.
What we do not do
We do not rate lakes for water quality, publish fishing reports or replace official warnings. For algae advisories, closures and boating rules, the state agency and the lake operator are the authority.
Corrections
If something is wrong, we want to know. Reports of a wrong gauge, a misplaced lake or a broken number are checked against the official source, and confirmed errors are fixed in the next daily update. Lakes are added on request when there is public data to support a page.
Get in touch
Email hello@lakeglance.com, or see the contact page for what to include. Club and marina owners can also add a live conditions widget to their own site.