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0.20

Great Bridgford

Sow
Staffordshire Trent Valley catchment • Great Bridgeford • Staffordshire • ID: 4052 • Level
(30m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 128 views

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Current Level
0.197 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.197 mASD
24h Min
0.195 mASD
Typical Range
0.22 - 0.54
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.49 mASD
EA official record
1.41 in our data (since Jan 1971)
Current level is 13% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 21:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.197 mASD
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.196 mASD
23 Aug 18:00 0.196 mASD

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 8 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 4.8 km away).

42flood warnings 234flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 6 Jan 2025Sandyford Brook in Stafford

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 10
2025 1 15
2024 10 29
2023 4 14
2022 0 10
2021 3 18
2020 4 24
2019 6 21
2018 1 11
2017 0 7
2016 1 14
2015 0 1
2014 0 16
2013 2 9
2012 7 7
2011 0 2
2010 0 4
2009 1 3
2008 2 9
2007 0 8
2006 0 2

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 Great Bridgeford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Great Bridgford
  • Watercourse: River Sow
  • Nearest Town: Great Bridgeford
  • County: Staffordshire
  • Nearest reservoir: Blithfield (18.0 km) · 100.0% full (as of 3 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 52°50'23"N 2°10'27"W (52.839744, -2.174088)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 18 Jan 1971
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 4052
  • EA Gauge ID: 4052-level-stage-i-15_min-mASD
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: mASD
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Staffordshire Trent Valley
  • Typical Range: 0.223 – 0.539 mASD
  • Drainage Area: 163 km² upstream of this gauge
  • EA Cross-check: 0.20 mASD (EA at 23 Aug 23:45)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

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 response A 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
0.59
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
803 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +2% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.1%
largely rural
Highest Recorded Flow
21.86 m³/s
21 Oct 2023
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.233.500.8270.3385% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 8%Grassland 55%Arable 33%Urban 3%Other 1%
Grassland 59% → 55% since 1990

Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction, effluent returns.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Crump profile Flat V weir in trapezoidal channel, with floodbanks to contain out of channel flows.

More detail

The catchment

Low relief agricultural catchment, primarily on Mercia Mudstone, with some Sherwood Sandstone in headwaters. Glacial gravel in valleys maintain baseflows.

The station

Crump profile Flat V weir, 9.1m wide, in trapezoidal channel, with floodbanks to contain out of channel flows. Fish and eel pass constructed in 2014. Removed from peak flows dataset in September 2023 (WINFAP Files v12).

How it measures flow

Downstream channel widened in 2015 to allow for modular conditions throughout the year. Large amount of scatter in gaugings making flow calculations unreliable, compounded by bypass flow during flood conditions which is difficult to measure accurately. Rating problems include summer weed growth that causes variable drowning, affecting flow quality at all levels. Sedimentation in the measurement section can also cause inaccuracies. ADCP gaugings carried out by wading and remote craft at low flows within measurement section. High flow gaugings carried out within measurement section using remote controlled ADCP, as cableway no longer in use. In-channel weed growth upstream and downstream of measurement section is managed during the summer months.

Flow regime

Minimal interference from sewage effluent and groundwater pumping for PWS.

The flow record

Flows rejected during Jun to Sep 2016 due to weed growth. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2022 (WINFAP Files v11).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1971
Station datum
77.1 mAOD
Flow record
1971–2024 · 53 yrs · 99% complete
Hydrometric area
28
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Sow at Great Bridgford flooding today?

The current level is 0.20m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Great Bridgford?

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.

What is a normal level for the River Sow at Great Bridgford?

The typical range at this station is 0.22m to 0.54m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.54m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

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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:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →