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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 mASD/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
0.685 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.758 mASD
24h Min
0.685 mASD
Typical Range
0.30 - 1.99
mASD
Highest Recorded
3.40 mASD
5 Dec 1960
Since Nov 1959
Current level is 20% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. Under evaluation —
not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Falling · -1 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:45▼ -0.1 cm0.685 mASD
23 Aug 23:30▼ -0.1 cm0.686 mASD
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.687 mASD
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.688 mASD
23 Aug 22:45▼ -0.3 cm0.688 mASD
23 Aug 21:30▼ -0.1 cm0.691 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.692 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.692 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.693 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▼ -0.1 cm0.693 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.694 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▼ -0.1 cm0.694 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.695 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▼ -0.1 cm0.695 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▼ -0.1 cm0.696 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▼ -0.1 cm0.697 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.698 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▼ -0.1 cm0.698 mASD
23 Aug 18:15▼ -0.1 cm0.699 mASD
23 Aug 18:000.700 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 14 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.5 km away).
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Milford flood history.
Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.
Catchment Character
🌊 Mixed responseA balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.52
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
754 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
7.2%
partly urbanised
Highest Recorded Flow
69.74 m³/s
7 Nov 2000
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Vertical-area station immediately downstream of Holdiford Road bridge.
More detail
The catchment
Low relief catchment, rural west, urbanised south and east. Geology: predominantly Keuper Marl in west, with Permian and Triassic sandstones in east. Appreciable Boulder Clay in south. Approx 15% of the catchment is urban with other landuse consisting of some mixed farming, light industry and some forestry.
The station
Vertical-area station; channel about 25m wide.
How it measures flow
Cableway spans 38m. Subject to severe weed growth (retrospective correction of rating made) and siltation; variable and imprecise low flows. Channel regraded 1964-7.
Flow regime
Flows significantly augmented from WRW (Cannock, Stafford).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Velocity–area
Operating since
1960–2011
Station datum
69.4 mAOD
Flow record
1960–2011 · 51 yrs · 67% complete
Hydrometric area
28
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Sow at Milford flooding today?
The current level is 0.69m, which is within the typical range of 0.30 to 1.99m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Milford?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. Only about 7.0mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Sow at Milford?
The typical range at this station is 0.30m to 1.99m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.99m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are taken by the Environment Agency gauge roughly every 15 minutes and FloodRadar refreshes its data continuously, so the level shown is normally less than an hour old.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
