Northern Manchester catchment
• Bury • Greater Manchester • ID: 690160 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 113 views
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Current Level
0.265 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.269 m
24h Min
0.261 m
Typical Range
0.23 - 1.50
m
Highest Recorded
3.91 m
16 Mar 2013
Since Nov 1995
Current level is 7% 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
Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▲ +0.1 cm0.265 m
24 Aug 00:15▬ steady0.264 m
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.264 m
23 Aug 23:45▲ +0.1 cm0.264 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.263 m
23 Aug 23:15▲ +0.1 cm0.263 m
23 Aug 23:00▼ -0.1 cm0.262 m
23 Aug 22:45▼ -0.1 cm0.263 m
23 Aug 21:30▼ -0.1 cm0.264 m
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.265 m
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.265 m
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.266 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.266 m
23 Aug 20:15▼ -0.1 cm0.266 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.267 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.267 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.267 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.267 m
23 Aug 19:00▲ +0.1 cm0.267 m
23 Aug 18:450.266 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 22 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.4 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 Bury 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
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds 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
0.43
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,442 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
8.7%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
113 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
117 m³/s
26 Dec 2015
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.
Velocity area station with broad-crested weir as control. Replaced Bury Bridge (69035) in 1995.
More detail
The catchment
Geology is post-glacial deposits over predominantly Millstone Grit, with some Coal Measures. A moderately urbanised catchment with steep moorland headwaters in the south Pennines; includes urban areas of Bury and Rawtenstall. No catchment changes known.
The station
Velocity area station, 22m wide section with good approach, opened November 1995 with a pre-existing curved broad-crested mill weir as the control. Replaced Bury Bridge (69035), 1.5km downstream; Kirkless Brook enters between the two stations. Bury Bridge and Bury Grounds overlapped from November 1995 to March 1998, and included high flows in November 1996. Stages are closely correlated.
How it measures flow
The curved weir is 28m wide, crest is in poor condition. Weir doesn't drown due to 3m drop over crest. The inlet pipe was extended to prevent silt blockage, and the level re-surveyed. Level readings prior to August 1998 were then lowered by 0.022m to make them consistent with later records. High flow gaugings carried out by cableway. A stage-stage relationship was derived to generate equivalent stages at Bury Grounds for the period of record at Bury Bridge, and the present Bury Grounds rating applied. One peak flow rating applied across period of record, derived from current meter gaugings.
Flow regime
Runoff influenced by storage reservoirs (Haslingden Grane system and Ogden, Clowbridge), abstractions and effluent returns.
The flow record
POT and AMAX data are presented for Bury Grounds including the period of record at Bury Bridge. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1992
Station datum
79.8 mAOD
Flow record
1995–2024 · 29 yrs · 98% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1995
Hydrometric area
69
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Irwell at Bury Ground flooding today?
The current level is 0.27m, which is within the typical range of 0.23 to 1.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Bury Ground?
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 Bury Ground?
The typical range at this station is 0.23m 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.
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:
22 Jun 2012 High flow gauging
11 Aug 2011 High flow gauging in August 2011
Longer View
Looking Across Weir to Left Bank
Looking at Weir from Left Bank
