Lune and Wyre catchment
• St Michael's On Wyre • Lancashire • ID: 720517 • Level
(40m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 138 views
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Current Level
0.281 m
▼ Falling slightly
24h Max
0.323 m
24h Min
0.281 m
Typical Range
0.40 - 4.73
m
Highest Recorded
5.01 m
EA official record
4.99 in our data (since Jan 1976)
Current level is 6% 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
Falling · -3 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▬ steady0.281 m
24 Aug 00:15▼ -0.1 cm0.282 m
24 Aug 00:00▼ -0.1 cm0.283 m
23 Aug 23:45▼ -0.1 cm0.284 m
23 Aug 23:30▼ -0.1 cm0.285 m
23 Aug 23:15▼ -0.2 cm0.286 m
23 Aug 23:00▼ -0.1 cm0.288 m
23 Aug 22:45▼ -0.8 cm0.289 m
23 Aug 21:30▼ -0.1 cm0.297 m
23 Aug 21:15▼ -0.2 cm0.298 m
23 Aug 21:00▼ -0.1 cm0.300 m
23 Aug 20:45▼ -0.1 cm0.301 m
23 Aug 20:30▼ -0.1 cm0.302 m
23 Aug 20:15▼ -0.1 cm0.303 m
23 Aug 20:00▼ -0.1 cm0.304 m
23 Aug 19:45▼ -0.1 cm0.305 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.306 m
23 Aug 19:15▼ -0.1 cm0.306 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.307 m
23 Aug 18:450.307 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 18 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.5 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 St Michael's On Wyre 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
0.37
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,340 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
131 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
151 m³/s
30 Oct 2000
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.
Flat V weir on tidally affected reach of the River Wyre. Flood flows truncated by upstream storage basins.
More detail
The catchment
Geology consists of Lower Triassic Bunter sandstones, marl, Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone. A lightly populated catchment having predominantly agricultural land-use. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Station opened as a velocity area station with cableway in September 1962. Despite inclusion of artificial bed control, low flow calibration found insensitive and additional station built in 1969. The additional station is a truncated Flat V weir (19.4m wide, with 1:2 u/s & d/s slopes, and 1:20 cross-slopes) built 500m downstream in December 1969. Both stations operated until February 1981.
How it measures flow
Gaugings were carried out at the velocity area station until February 1981 and a cableway was installed at the Flat V station in mid 1990s. Tidally affected, particularly at spring tides, drowning weir. Raised banks prevent bypassing except for major events. Flood levee work in the 1980s is believed to have increased the channel capacity. Multiple ratings applied across POR, the most recent is valid from Sept-2011 with introduction of Flat V weir, derived from gaugings.
Flow regime
There are abstractions at Garstang but the main artificial influence on low and medium flows is the Lune-Wyre transfer (via Abbeystead Reservoir). Large flood flows are reduced by Garstang (online) and Catterall (offline) flood storage basins upstream. Garstang was first used on 5 January 1992 and Catterall on 31 January 1995.
The flow record
Peak flow data are from the velocity area station to end 1969, and Flat V thereafter. The largest event in the record was on 26/27 October 1980, which flooded around 5000 acres, with breaches in the embankments upstream of the gauging stations. Because of problems in the recording of the October 1980 event, the flow is an estimate but one which reflects the limited capacity of the river channel and the extensive floodplains upstream. Damage in this event probably affected peak flows immediately afterwards. When the flood storage basins upstream are operated, the data should not be used in pooling groups and therefore AMAX and POT data are rejected after water year 1990/91. Flows after 2011 rating change are uncertain pending further gaugings and should be used with caution. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1963
Station datum
4.4 mAOD
Flow record
1963–2024 · 61 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1962
Hydrometric area
72
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Wyre at St Michaels flooding today?
The current level is 0.28m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at St Michaels?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 7 days of measurements, updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Wyre at St Michaels?
The typical range at this station is 0.40m to 4.73m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 4.73m 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:
