North West Norfolk catchment
• Heacham • Norfolk • ID: E21127 • Level
(34m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 203 views
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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.
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Current Level
0.065 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.066 m
24h Min
0.065 m
Typical Range
0.02 - 0.13
m
Highest Recorded
0.35 m
1 Aug 1980
Since Oct 1965
Current level is 19% 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 00:15▬ steady0.065 m
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 18:45▬ steady0.065 m
23 Aug 18:300.065 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2007 for the 10 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.2 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 Heacham 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
🌊 Groundwater-fedSlow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.
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
0.97
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
696 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.6%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
0.442 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
1.09 m³/s
10 Jan 1994
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.
Two crump weirs gauging a predominantly Chalk catchment with agricultural land use, topographical catchment area substantially exceeds the true contributing area.
More detail
The catchment
Topographical catchment area substantially exceeds the true contributing area (by a factor of about two). Catchment area was determined in different ways. Area 55 sq. km is taken from the GA catchment area review of the Heacham/Wensum catchment boundary in 1996. This reduces the area from 59 sq. km, calculated in 1987, and from 89 sq. km adopted before 1987. The area of the NRFA catchment derived from IHDTM is 56 sq. km. Predominantly Chalk in parts overlain by Boulder Clay. Agricultural land use.
The station
Two Crump profile weirs in parallel, 3m broad in total.
How it measures flow
Weirs never drown. Small bypass channel with weir upstream of station, rejoining downstream of weir, is factored in to the stage-discharge relationship. One rating applied across period of record.
Flow regime
Groundwater abstraction for PWS and irrigation.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Gauging structure
Operating since
1965
Station datum
9.4 mAOD
Flow record
1965–2024 · 59 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1965
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the Heacham River at Heacham flooding today?
The current level is 0.07m, which is within the typical range of 0.02 to 0.13m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Heacham?
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 Heacham River at Heacham?
The typical range at this station is 0.02m to 0.13m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.13m 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:
