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Restormel

Name: Restormel River Level Data
Creator: FloodRadar

Fowey

Seaton, Looe and Fowey catchment • Lostwithiel • Cornwall • ID: 49110 • Level

00:00 (28m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 125 views

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▲ Above a heightTriggers when the level passes a height you choose. ✓ ↗ Rising fastTriggers when it's climbing more than 0.10 m/hr. ✓ 🌊 Upstream wave betaA flood wave detected upstream is heading this way. ✓ 🚱 Sewage nearbyA storm overflow starts discharging within ~3 km. ✓

⤴ Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.

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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level

0.007 m

▬ Steady

24h Max

0.007 m

24h Min

0.006 m

Typical Range

0.24 - 1.50

Highest Recorded

2.28 m

27 Dec 1979

Since Apr 1961

Current level is 1% of this

🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

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1 day Rainfall Zoom to data Nearby sewage releases (≤3 km)

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.

River Flow

90 days

Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.

Long Term

🌍 floodradar.co.uk

— Show major events Rainfall Rain days Nearby sewage releases (≤3 km)

Days Above Normal

This year vs 5-year monthly range

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h

23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 17:30 ▬ steady 0.007 m

23 Aug 17:15 0.007 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 16 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.2 km away).

9severe warnings 78flood warnings 232flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 2 Feb 2026 — South Cornwall Coast from Lizard Point to Gribbin Head excluding the tidal Fal Estuary

Year by year

Year	Severe	Warnings	Alerts
2026	0	3	9
2025	0	5	20
2024	0	8	22
2023	0	5	12
2022	0	0	5
2021	0	0	10
2020	0	12	25
2019	0	6	18
2018	0	2	24
2017	0	0	11
2016	0	5	22
2015	0	2	13
2014	6	13	8
2013	0	1	6
2012	2	8	14
2011	0	0	9
2010	0	2	3
2008	1	0	1
2007	0	1	0
2006	0	5	0

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 Lostwithiel flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

Monitoring Station: Restormel
Watercourse: River Fowey
Nearest Town: Lostwithiel
County: Cornwall
Nearest reservoir: Blackpool Pit (13.7 km) · 79.5% full (as of 31 May 2026)
Coordinates: 50°25'52"N 4°40'47"W (50.431183, -4.679630)
Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
Date Opened: 31 Mar 1961
Status: Active
Station Type: River level station

Station Reference: 49110
EA Gauge ID: 49110-level-1-i-15_min-m
Parameter: Level
Unit: m
Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
Tidal: No
Lock / structure: No
Catchment Area: Seaton, Looe and Fowey
Typical Range: 0.240 – 1.500 m
Drainage Area: 169 km² upstream of this gauge
Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
EA Cross-check: 0.24 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:45)
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 i

🌊 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). What does this mean?

Baseflow Index

0.52

mixed response

Avg Annual Rainfall

1,529 mm/yr

1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70

Urban Extent

0.3%

largely rural

Median Annual Flood

50.90 m³/s

QMED — typical yearly peak flow

Highest Recorded Flow

82.58 m³/s

27 Dec 1979

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.

Land Cover (2023)

Woodland 15%Grassland 71%Arable 6%Heath/scrub 3%Urban 1%Other 4%

Grassland 76% → 71% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, public water supply.

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

Compound Crump profile weir with tailwater recorder. Flows influenced by Colliford and Siblybank reservoirs.

More detail

The catchment

Moderate relief catchment whose headwaters drain the kaolinised granite of Bodmin Moor. Middle and low reaches drain Devonian slates and grits. Some valley storage in gravels. Low grade agriculture, grazing, some forestry and cultivation. Pre-reservoir FARL2015 (for WINFAP 5.3 or later) or FARL (for earlier versions of WINFAP) should be used with these records because the peak flow data after the reservoir started impounding is rejected. Pre- and post-reservoir values for FARL2015 are 0.968 and 0.9132, respectively. Pre- and post-reservoir values for FARL are 0.985 and 0.92, respectively.

The station

Compound Crump profile weir with tailwater recorder, with middle crest length 3.5m and 2 side crests of 6.5m (16.5m total). Piers at 1.75m, wing walls at 2.5m. Superseded velocity-area station 48002 (Fowey at Restormel One), from which pre-1973 data is taken.

How it measures flow

Flood banks contain flows up to wing wall height, though drowning occurs ~0.8-1.0m. Upstream cableway, fish counter. Theoretical rating to 0.9m (~25 cumecs), updated in 2011 to fit gaugings above this level. Colliford Reservoir began to fill in July 1983. Recent gaugings and analysis from a tailwater recorder show that the weir goes non-modular from a stage of approx 1 m and is totally drowned above 1.3 m. However drowning is dealt with through rating by gaugings. Rating revised following gauging of 11/2010 event. Gaugings taken during 12/2012 floods confirmed this. Bypassing on left hand bank during 2012 flood but insignificant (<5%). Three peak flow ratings across period of record. Ratings sound across the range as max gauging is approx max recorded stage.

Flow regime

Runoff reduced by public water supply abstraction, causing substantial modifications to flow. 12-13% of the catchment is impounded - Colliford (1983) & Siblybank (1969) reservoirs . Other public water supply exports also affect the flow.

The flow record

Gap in peak flow rating record from October to December 1993 due to upgrade of the fish counter and remedial work on weir crest . Peak Flow data are rejected post-1983. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7) and in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).

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

1961

Station datum

9.2 mAOD

Flow record

1961–2024 · 63 yrs · 100% complete

Peak-flow record

since 1961

Hydrometric area

Measured by

Environment Agency

Nearby Groundwater

Soil Moisture

Possible storm-overflow correlation

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Fowey at Restormel flooding today?

The current level is 0.01m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Restormel?

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 Fowey at Restormel?

The typical range at this station is 0.24m to 1.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.50m 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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Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

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