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0.08

Wickford

Crouch
Essex catchment • Wickford • Essex • ID: E21284 • Level
(35m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 211 views

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Current Level
0.078 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.079 m
24h Min
0.071 m
Typical Range
0.02 - 1.67
m
Highest Recorded
2.69 m
14 Jan 2021
Since Jan 1994
Current level is 3% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +0.5 cm over 6h
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.078 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.078 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▲ +0.3 cm 0.077 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.074 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.074 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.074 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.073 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.074 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.073 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▬ steady 0.074 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.074 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.073 m
23 Aug 17:30 0.073 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2008 for the 7 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.9 km away).

16flood warnings 52flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 20 Oct 2021The River Crouch from Noak Bridge to Runwell

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2025 0 1
2024 0 6
2023 0 5
2022 0 4
2021 5 6
2020 0 6
2019 0 3
2018 0 1
2017 2 2
2016 1 2
2014 1 3
2013 3 1
2012 2 5
2011 0 1
2010 1 3
2009 1 2
2008 0 1

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 Wickford flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Wickford
  • Watercourse: River Crouch
  • Nearest Town: Wickford
  • County: Essex
  • Nearest reservoir: Hanningfield (5.2 km) · 54.9% full (as of 28 Dec 2025)
  • Coordinates: 51°36'44"N 0°31'24"E (51.612210, 0.523370)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Jan 1994
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E21284
  • EA Gauge ID: E21284-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: Essex
  • Typical Range: 0.021 – 1.670 m
  • Drainage Area: 72 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.08 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

🌊 Urban & flashy Heavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of 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
0.22
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
596 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +0% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
24%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
15.70 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
29.10 m³/s
14 Jan 2021
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.3451.360.1250.0435% (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 7%Grassland 32%Arable 21%Urban 40%
Urban 35% → 40% since 1990

Flow affected by: effluent returns.

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

Crump weir gauging a low-lying catchment.

More detail

The catchment

Low lying, undulating terrain. London Clay, negligible superficial deposits. Urban areas (Basildon, Billericay) make up about third of catchment, particularly developed in S. Remaining area in N of catchment is mixed farming.

The station

Crump weir and a rated channel for high flows. Station is approaching tidal limit.

How it measures flow

Crump weir has very small fall because approaching tidal limit. Rated channel for high flows calibrated by current meter and float measurements (2.85m high). Low modular limit. Rating confirmed by gaugings to 1.2m. One rating applied across period of record.

Flow regime

Responsive regime. Significant urban runoff from Billericay and Basildon. Low flows heavily influenced by STW discharge.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2019 (WINFAP Files v8).

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
Crump weir
Operating since
1962
Station datum
5.8 mAOD
Flow record
1976–2024 · 48 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1962
Hydrometric area
37
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Crouch at Wickford flooding today?

The current level is 0.08m, which is within the typical range of 0.02 to 1.67m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Wickford?

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 Crouch at Wickford?

The typical range at this station is 0.02m to 1.67m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.67m 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 →