Beam and Ingrebourne catchment
• Elm Park • England • ID: 5541TH • Level
(44m ago) • 2 readings/hr • 114 views
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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
0.090 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.090 mASD
24h Min
0.084 mASD
Typical Range
0.08 - 1.14
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.67 mASD
EA official record
1.63 in our data (since Jan 1982)
Current level is 5% 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.
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
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Rising · +0.2 cm over 6h
23 Aug 22:45▲ +0.2 cm0.090 mASD
23 Aug 22:30▼ -0.2 cm0.088 mASD
23 Aug 21:15▲ +0.2 cm0.090 mASD
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.2 cm0.088 mASD
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.090 mASD
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.090 mASD
23 Aug 20:15▲ +0.2 cm0.090 mASD
23 Aug 20:00▼ -0.2 cm0.088 mASD
23 Aug 19:45▲ +0.2 cm0.090 mASD
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 18:30▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 18:15▼ -0.2 cm0.088 mASD
23 Aug 18:00▲ +0.2 cm0.090 mASD
23 Aug 17:45▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 17:30▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 17:15▬ steady0.088 mASD
23 Aug 17:000.088 mASD
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 21 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.0 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 Elm Park 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
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
614 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
34%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
8.73 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
13.70 m³/s
23 Jun 2016
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.
An Essex modified Flat V Crump weir situated in a mainly rural headwaters with significant urban influences in lower reaches.
More detail
The catchment
A predominantly impermeable catchment. (London Clay exposed over much of the northern catchment with Claygate Beds, Bagshot Beds, Pebble Gravel and Boulder Clay capping the higher ground. Terrace gravels cover the London Clay in the southern half with narrow bands of London Clay and Alluvium bordering the river. Mainly rural headwaters with substantial expanding urban development in the lower reaches.
The station
Essex (modified Flat V Crump) weir in 10.4m wide section. The weir is non-standard. Used for both water resource and flood risk management.
How it measures flow
Model-based calibration assumes modularity and drowning is uncommon. Rating estimates of flow thought to be reasonable, gauged approaching QMED. One peak flow rating has been applied across the period of record. Levels are affected by Washlands gate and flap valve controlling flow into the Thames.
Flow regime
Runoff increased by effluent returns but reduced by industrial/agricultural abstraction. Flood storage lagoons built on the River Rom, from the late 1980s onwards, influence flows patterns.
The flow record
Naturalised flows available 1966-7, there is a very small net diminution in runoff. The site is prone to vandalism and data has been lost between 01/07/00 - 28/01/01 and 18/04/2020 - 01/06/2020. Peak flows rejected during WY2000/2001 due to the AMAX being recording at a neighbour station during this period. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1965
Station datum
5.8 mAOD
Flow record
1965–2024 · 59 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1965
Hydrometric area
37
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Beam at Hornchurch_Bretons Farm flooding today?
The current level is 0.09m, which is within the typical range of 0.08 to 1.14m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Hornchurch_Bretons Farm?
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 Beam at Hornchurch_Bretons Farm?
The typical range at this station is 0.08m to 1.14m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.14m 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:
