← Back
0.20

Woodleigh

Mole
Taw and North Devon Streams catchment • Chittlehamholt • Devon • ID: 50115 • Level
(38m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 107 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Woodleigh — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.

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

Current Level
0.200 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.209 m
24h Min
0.199 m
Typical Range
0.27 - 1.70
m
Highest Recorded
3.28 m
22 Dec 2012
Since Jan 1965
Current level is 6% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▬ steady 0.200 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▬ steady 0.200 m
24 Aug 00:00 ▬ steady 0.200 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.200 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.201 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.202 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.202 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.202 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.201 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.201 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.200 m
23 Aug 18:45 0.200 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 6 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.3 km away).

49flood warnings 292flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 27 Jan 2026River Taw (Middle) from Taw Bridge to Newnham Bridge

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 2 3
2025 2 12
2024 2 21
2023 3 17
2022 0 5
2021 1 12
2020 4 19
2019 0 20
2018 3 24
2017 0 13
2016 6 14
2015 3 18
2014 2 10
2013 4 21
2012 17 37
2011 0 10
2010 0 2
2009 0 13
2008 0 9
2007 0 7
2006 0 5

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 Chittlehamholt flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Woodleigh
  • Watercourse: River Mole
  • Nearest Town: Chittlehamholt
  • County: Devon
  • Coordinates: 50°58'23"N 3°54'35"W (50.973061, -3.909695)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 11 Jan 1965
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 50115
  • EA Gauge ID: 50115-level-stage-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: Taw and North Devon Streams
  • Typical Range: 0.271 – 1.700 m
  • Drainage Area: 328 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.20 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • 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
0.50
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,419 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.4%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
120 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
164 m³/s
22 Dec 2012
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 9.0930.105.040.8705% (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 10%Grassland 76%Arable 12%Urban 2%
Arable 6% → 12% since 1990

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

Velocity area station built in 1965 with cableway.

More detail

The catchment

Fairly responsive catchment of moderate relief descending from Exmoor through incised, forested valleys. Geology of sandstones and shales; Devonian in headwaters, Carboniferous lower down. Land-use is predominantly rural with grazing and low grade agriculture. No major catchment changes.

The station

Velocity area station built in 1965 with cableway, rock ledges/gravel shoals as controls.

How it measures flow

Gauging by wading at low flows and off remote bridges at higher flows until 11/2001 when a cableway was built. Straight reach, affected by weed growth. Goes out of bank on left bank. Bypassing occurs. One rating applied across period of record. Gauged above bank full with good fit to rating.

Flow regime

Reservoir(s) in catchment have minor effect on flows. Low flows moderately affected by public water supply abstraction and augmentation from Exe-Taw transfers. Some effluent returns.

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
Velocity–area
Operating since
1965
Station datum
47.9 mAOD
Flow record
1965–2024 · 59 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1965
Hydrometric area
50
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Mole at Woodleigh 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 Woodleigh?

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 0.0mm 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 Mole at Woodleigh?

The typical range at this station is 0.27m to 1.70m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.70m 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

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

Preview

📮 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 →