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0.23

Irwell Vale

Irwell
Northern Manchester catchment • Edenfield • Lancashire • ID: 690140 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 131 views

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Current Level
0.227 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.242 m
24h Min
0.220 m
Typical Range
0.24 - 1.60
m
Highest Recorded
3.91 m
16 Mar 2013
Since Jan 1996
Current level is 6% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -1 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.227 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.228 m
24 Aug 00:00 ▼ -0.6 cm 0.231 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.237 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▲ +0.4 cm 0.236 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.232 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.231 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.7 cm 0.229 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▲ +1 cm 0.236 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▼ -0.9 cm 0.222 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▼ -0.6 cm 0.231 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.237 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.236 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▲ +0.5 cm 0.237 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▲ +1 cm 0.232 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -2 cm 0.220 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.236 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.236 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.235 m
23 Aug 18:45 0.238 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 17 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.1 km away).

84flood warnings 93flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Sep 2025Whitewell Brook at Piercy and Newchurch from Ashworth Road to Wood Lea Road

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2025 6 4
2024 18 6
2023 1 6
2022 0 1
2021 4 6
2020 16 8
2019 0 12
2017 15 4
2016 2 2
2015 12 8
2014 0 2
2013 0 4
2012 10 12
2011 0 1
2010 0 3
2009 0 4
2008 0 6
2007 0 3
2006 0 1

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 Edenfield flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Irwell Vale
  • Watercourse: River Irwell
  • Nearest Town: Edenfield
  • County: Lancashire
  • Nearest reservoir: Gorple Upper Ire (17.0 km) · 96.4% full (as of 10 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 53°40'39"N 2°19'2"W (53.677382, -2.317104)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 21 Jan 1996
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 690140
  • EA Gauge ID: 690140-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 5 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Northern Manchester
  • Typical Range: 0.235 – 1.600 m
  • Drainage Area: 101 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.23 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

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds fairly quickly to rain, with moderate baseflow between events.

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
0.46
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,443 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
7.7%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
79.00 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
71.63 m³/s
26 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.2811.071.760.7115% (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 3%Grassland 51%Heath/scrub 30%Urban 13%Other 2%
Heath/scrub 14% → 30% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, public water supply, groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

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 with non-standard shallow V weir in urbanised catchment.

More detail

The catchment

Moderate relief catchment draining the Forest of Rossendale. Solid geology Millstone Grit and Coal Measures; peat on highest moors, intermittent glacial drift otherwise. Urbanised main valley. No catchment changes known.

The station

Opened January 1996 as velocity area station with non-standard shallow V weir. Station replaced Stubbins (69040), 2km downstream.

How it measures flow

Weir drowns at approximately 0.55m. Reliable gaugings by wading at low flows only; bridge gaugings upstream are unreliable due to the nature of the bridge and inflows from River Ogden. A cableway was added in 2002. Two peak flow ratings across period of record derived from low flow current meter gaugings and high flow ADCP gaugings off the cableway. Upper segments of the rating are based on hydraulic modelling.

Flow regime

Reservoirs in headwaters have significant effect on low flows.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

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
1964
Station datum
139.5 mAOD
Flow record
1996–2024 · 28 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1996
Hydrometric area
69
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Irwell at Irwell Vale flooding today?

The current level is 0.23m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Irwell Vale?

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 Irwell at Irwell Vale?

The typical range at this station is 0.24m to 1.60m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.60m 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:

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 →