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0.45

Scalehill Upper Lorton Valley

Cocker
Derwent West Cumbria and Duddon catchment • Loweswater • Cumberland • ID: 751612 • Level
(31m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 99 views

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Current Level
0.452 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.475 m
24h Min
0.452 m
Typical Range
0.31 - 0.97
m
Highest Recorded
3.54 m
EA official record
2.87 in our data (since Mar 1974)
Current level is 13% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.7 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.452 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.453 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.453 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.456 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.457 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.457 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.456 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.456 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.457 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.457 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.457 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.457 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.458 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.458 m
23 Aug 17:30 0.459 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 7 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 5.2 km away).

5severe warnings 22flood warnings 174flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 14 Dec 2025Rivers Cocker and Derwent at Cockermouth, Cricket Ground, Trout Hotel Car Park, Hatters Croft

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2025 0 3 5
2024 0 1 4
2023 0 0 7
2022 0 0 4
2021 0 4 7
2020 0 1 5
2019 0 0 5
2018 0 0 1
2017 0 1 8
2016 0 0 3
2015 4 7 10
2014 0 0 5
2013 0 0 7
2012 0 2 8
2011 0 0 8
2010 0 0 8
2009 1 1 12
2008 0 2 17
2007 0 0 25
2006 0 0 25

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 Loweswater flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Scalehill Upper Lorton Valley
  • Watercourse: River Cocker
  • Nearest Town: Loweswater
  • County: Cumberland
  • Coordinates: 54°34'50"N 3°19'5"W (54.580690, -3.317998)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1973
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 751612
  • EA Gauge ID: 751612-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: Derwent West Cumbria and Duddon
  • Typical Range: 0.312 – 0.973 m
  • Drainage Area: 64 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.45 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:15)
  • 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

🌊 Steep & flashy Steep catchment sheds rain quickly — expect fast, sharp rises after 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
0.44
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
2,377 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.0%
largely rural
Highest Recorded Flow
131 m³/s
19 Nov 2009
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 3.6611.112.210.3745% (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 4%Grassland 77%Arable 1%Heath/scrub 11%Other 7%
Heath/scrub 18% → 11% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water 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

Non-standard compound Crump weir gauging an entirely rural catchment. Downstream of Crummock water, low flows are mostly compensation flows.

More detail

The catchment

Entirely rural, heathland, moorland and rough pasture over impervious Ordovician Skiddaw Slates and Borrowdale Volcanics. Substantial outcrop of granitic intrusion. Drift covered to the elevation of Crummock Water. Catchment contains Buttermere, Crummock Water and Loweswater, which run into each other. No catchment changes known.

The station

Non-standard compound weir with Crump centre section. Straight approach upstream, uniform flow. Generally used in conjunction with 75004 Southwaite.

How it measures flow

Stable rating to bankfull (1.215m); above this structure completely drowned, flow over both banks (upstream bypassing on left bank above 0.8m). Low flows good. Pebble/gravel bed, with stone walls at either side. Walls eroded and prone to flooding. No permanent cableway. The Cocker was modelled in 1997 (ISIS Hydrodynamic Model) as part of the River Derwent S105 Flood Mapping Study in 1997; rating reviewed but not recalculated. Rated by current meter to 0.74m.

Flow regime

Downstream of Crummock Water, flow regulated, mostly compensation at low flows.

The flow record

29/10 - 7/11/97 data suspect due to vandalism and repair of sluice gates at Crummock.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1974
Station datum
95.1 mAOD
Flow record
1974–2024 · 50 yrs · 100% complete
Hydrometric area
75
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Cocker at Scalehill Upper Lorton Valley flooding today?

The current level is 0.45m, which is within the typical range of 0.31 to 0.97m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Scalehill Upper Lorton Valley?

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 Cocker at Scalehill Upper Lorton Valley?

The typical range at this station is 0.31m to 0.97m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.97m 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 →