Upper Mersey catchment
• Haughton Green • Greater Manchester • ID: 692422 • Level
(22m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 134 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 m/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.
Get notified when recent rainfall near this gauge crosses its learnt rise trigger — an early "watch"
signal, typically hours before a rise. Experimental; not an official flood warning.
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EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.476 m
▼ Falling (-4cm/hr)
24h Max
0.559 m
24h Min
0.234 m
Typical Range
0.22 - 2.10
m
Highest Recorded
2.54 m
EA official record
2.35 in our data (since Mar 1974)
Current level is 19% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
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.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 7 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
45 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 1.6 km away along the river. 4 report discharging now, 40 report not discharging, and for 1 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Denton Brook Via Sws · 2.2 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
34 spills · 37 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
37 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
36 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
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 Haughton Green flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 18 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,333 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +6% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
12%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
50.00 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
55.07 m³/s
20 Jan 2021 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
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.
Ultrasonic station from 1995, with mill weir. Flow regime dominated by effluents at low flows and by impoundments in the upper reaches across the regime.
More detail
The catchment
Geology of Millstone Grit and Coal Measures with peat cover on high moors. Steeper valley sides drift free, otherwise mixed glacial drift cover. Catchment drains the northern Peak District moors, including Saddleworth Moor but is heavily urbanised in the lower reaches, which include parts of Greater Manchester. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Broomstairs Bridge station opened June 1968 but was a poor site due to under-mining of the timber capping on the weir, which prevented an accurate stage-discharge relationship. The weir deteriorated over time and completely failed in August 2004. An ultrasonic multi-path gauge (Broomstairs ultrasonic) was installed in February 1995 until it was switched off for good in March 2017. Weed growth was a problem in the ultrasonic section during the summer which required regular maintenance and lead to regular path and flow drop outs. There is very little growth in the section immediately u/s of the weir. Works began in April 2010 and finished in July 2010 to install a stainless steel non-standard thin plate with a low flow rectangular notch which also included extensive repair work to the downstream face of the structure.
How it measures flow
No bypassing, as all flows are through the bridge immediately upstream from which gaugings are made. Three peak flow rating accross the period based on current meter gaugings at low flows, from the bridge using a handline with a light weight (so may over-estimate) at medium flows and, model and ultrasonic flows at higher flows. Ultrasonic from Feb 1995. Flows from rating at Broomstairs Bridge to February 1995, from ultrasonic station thereafter. Some early problems with the ultrasonic station mean POT data have been checked and amended using the rating. Performance of the ultrasonics remains under review in relation to the highest flows. Rated and ultrasonic flows have been compared over the common period of record, and with Portwood downstream (69027). Both stations currently open, Broomstairs Bridge as levels-only.
Flow regime
Low flows dominated by effluents. Many impoundments in the upper reaches control 33% of the catchment in total. The largest of these are Dovestone and Chew Reservoirs on the Chew Brook (draining Saddleworth Moor), which alone control 20% of the catchment.
The flow record
Daily mean flows pre-ultrasonic record are poor. Erroneous daily flow data July and August 2006 removed. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8). After re-rating at both stations, most peak flows are now comparable with Portwood downstream (although Broomstairs AMAX still higher on 06/07/2012 and 28/07/2019). Timing of WY22/23 AMAX validated despite outage from 27/06/2023 - 04/08/2023.
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Tame at Broomstairs Bridge flooding today?
The current level is 0.48m, which is within the typical range of 0.22 to 2.10m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Broomstairs Bridge?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), 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. 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 Tame at Broomstairs Bridge?
The typical range at this station is 0.22m to 2.10m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.10m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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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:
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