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Terms and conditions

Last updated October 25, 2026

These terms apply to everyone who uses lakeglance.com, its pages, its search, its maps and the embeddable conditions widget (together, "Lakeglance"). By using Lakeglance you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. Our privacy policy anddisclaimer form part of these terms.

1. What Lakeglance provides

Lakeglance is a free, independent website that brings together public weather and water data for lakes and reservoirs in the United States and Puerto Rico. For each lake it shows the National Weather Service forecast for the water, live water levels from U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gauges where one exists or from NASA's SWOT satellite where none does, NOAA weather radar, boat ramps and marinas mapped in OpenStreetMap, and a plain rating of how the wind suits sailing, paddling, power boating and fishing. You do not need an account, and we do not charge for the site.

We may add, change or remove lakes, pages and features at any time, and parts of the site may be unavailable while a data source is down or while we work on it. We do not promise that any lake, gauge or feature will stay available.

2. Planning information, not a safety service

Forecasts can be wrong, gauges can fail, and conditions on open water can change within minutes. The go or no-go ratings apply fixed wind, gust, rain and storm limits and know nothing about your boat, your experience, water temperature, currents near dams, traffic or closures. You alone decide whether it is safe to go out, and you are responsible for your vessel, your crew and for following local laws, posted rules and official warnings. Do not use Lakeglance for navigation or emergency decisions. In an emergency on the water, call 911 or hail the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF channel 16. Thedisclaimer explains the limits of each data source in more detail.

3. Where the data comes from, and its licences

  • Weather and forecasts: National Weather Service (NOAA), a U.S. government work in the public domain.
  • Water levels: U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, public domain. Recent readings are provisional and may be revised by the agency.
  • Satellite water levels for lakes without a gauge: NASA/CNES SWOT mission, published by NASA PO.DAAC; lake identifiers from the SWOT Prior Lake Database (CNES/THEIA hydroweb.next, Etalab Open Licence 2.0).
  • Radar: NOAA Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS), public domain.
  • Lake outlines and areas: USGS National Hydrography Dataset, public domain.
  • Lake facts: Wikidata, released under CC0.
  • Boat ramps, marinas and clubs: © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).
  • Map tiles: OpenFreeMap and OpenMapTiles, built on OpenStreetMap data.
  • Lake photos: Wikimedia Commons. Each photo keeps its own licence, and the photographer and licence are credited under the photo.

We do not alter the source numbers. We convert units, summarise forecasts and compare levels with each lake's own records. Lakeglance is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, any of these agencies or projects, and nothing on the site is an official forecast, warning or measurement.

4. Using the site

You may read, share and link to any Lakeglance page for personal or commercial purposes. When you use the site, please do not:

  • scrape, mirror or bulk download pages or data in a way that strains the site, or bypass the limits we set in robots.txt or rate limits;
  • present Lakeglance data as an official government forecast, warning or measurement;
  • copy the site's written text or design to build a competing website;
  • try to break, overload, probe or gain unauthorised access to the site or the servers behind it;
  • use the site for anything unlawful.

The underlying public data is free to use from its original sources, listed above. If you need lake data in bulk, please take it from those sources rather than from our pages.

5. The embeddable widget

Clubs, marinas, rental businesses and lake associations may place the Lakeglance conditions widget on their own websites for free, as long as the widget is shown as provided, with its "Lakeglance" link left in place. You may not change the numbers or ratings it shows or suggest that Lakeglance endorses your business. We may change the widget's design or stop offering it, and we may block a widget on a site that breaks these terms.

6. Our content

The site's design, code, written explanations, glossary articles, ratings method and the arrangement of the data are owned by Lakeglance. Facts and public data are not ours to own, and the photos and map data belong to their authors under the licences above. Short quotes with a link back to the page are welcome.

7. Advertising and links to other sites

Lakeglance may show advertising, including ads served by Google AdSense, to keep the site free. Advertisers are responsible for their own ads, and an ad on a page is not a recommendation by Lakeglance. Pages also link to agency sites, lake operators, marinas and map services that we do not control. We are not responsible for their content, availability or privacy practices. How advertising cookies work, and how to opt out, is explained in ourprivacy policy.

8. No warranty

Lakeglance is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties, express or implied, including that the site or its data is accurate, complete, current, uninterrupted or fit for a particular purpose.

9. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Lakeglance and the people who run it are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or special loss or damage, including injury, damage to property or loss of a booking, that arises from using or relying on the site, its data, its ratings or the widget. Some places do not allow certain limits on liability, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

10. Indemnity

If you use Lakeglance in breach of these terms, for example by republishing its data as an official warning or by misusing the widget, you agree to cover the reasonable costs and claims that result for Lakeglance.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site changes. The date at the top shows the latest version, and continuing to use Lakeglance after a change means you accept the updated terms. If a part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.

12. Contact

Questions about these terms: [email protected], or see the contact page.