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0.25

Colne Bridge

Colne
Aire and Calder catchment • Huddersfield • West Yorkshire • ID: F1102 • Level
(37m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 149 views

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Current Level
0.250 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.257 m
24h Min
0.248 m
Typical Range
0.22 - 1.00
m
Highest Recorded
2.35 m
9 Feb 2020
Since Jan 1966
Current level is 11% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.4 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30 ▬ steady 0.250 m
24 Aug 00:15 ▬ steady 0.250 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.250 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.250 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.250 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.250 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.250 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.252 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.252 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 18:30 0.254 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 22 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.9 km away).

45flood warnings 41flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 1 Jan 2025River Spen and Canker Dyke at Ravensthorpe

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2025 6 2
2024 0 3
2023 1 3
2022 2 1
2021 0 3
2020 7 5
2019 2 4
2018 0 1
2017 0 1
2016 0 4
2015 10 3
2014 0 2
2013 0 1
2012 17 7
2011 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 Huddersfield flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Colne Bridge
  • Watercourse: River Colne
  • Nearest Town: Huddersfield
  • County: West Yorkshire
  • Nearest reservoir: Blackmoorfoot Ire (10.2 km) · 75.8% full (as of 10 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 53°40'31"N 1°44'17"W (53.675270, -1.738074)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 3 Jan 1966
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: F1102
  • EA Gauge ID: F1102-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: Aire and Calder
  • Typical Range: 0.219 – 1.000 m
  • Drainage Area: 245 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.25 m (EA at 24 Aug 00:15)
  • 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

🌊 Mixed response A balance of quick runoff and slower groundwater baseflow.

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
0.61
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,185 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
9.0%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
91.03 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
113 m³/s
20 Feb 2022
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 4.4915.602.220.6475% (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 9%Grassland 52%Arable 2%Heath/scrub 16%Urban 20%Other 1%
Urban 15% → 20% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, public water supply, groundwater abstraction, industrial / agricultural 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

A non-standard broad-crested weir within high banks containing all flows.

More detail

The catchment

The catchment draining the East side of the Pennines above Huddersfield. Mixed geology with Carboniferous Millstone Grit in the upper catchment and Coal Measures, which dip under Lower Coal Measures in the lower part. Catchment comprises peat-covered moorland headwaters used for rough grazing. Steep valleys descend rapidly to heavily industrialised and densely settled valley bottoms and which includes Huddersfield. Continuing increase in urbanisation around Huddersfield during period of record.

The station

A non-standard, curved, concrete broad-crested weir 52m wide with an off-centre steel-crested Crump weir notch 3.8m wide for more accurate low flow measurement. Broad-crested flanking weirs 0.4m higher. The existing sidewalls extend well upstream and no end contractions are known. Located within high, regular-profile riverbanks which contains flow at all levels. Colne Bridge is located about 650m upstream of the confluence with the Calder. There are some problems of silting.

How it measures flow

Weir control, no bypassing. Low flow rating from Crump formula, empirical rating for higher flows fitted to gaugings at cableway 200m downstream. Gauged to AMAX3 and 85% of AMAX1. Rating reviewed in 2020, revised rating D gives good fit to high flow gaugings from 2012 flood event. Flood Studies Report grade B.

Flow regime

There are numerous small storage reservoirs in the Colne valley. An estimated 16.75% of catchment drains through around 8 reservoirs. Abstractions are made for supply at Huddersfield. Some imports of water received from Deanhead reservoir and groundwater abstractions. Export of water is made from Blackmoorfoot reservoir. Industrial abstraction from downstream of the confluence with the Calder is discharged back to the Colne upstream of the station. Industrial abstraction along the Huddersfield Broad Canal.

The flow record

Although such events are rare, the 1946 flood level reached 2.4m over the Crump. Low flows in February 1992 due to a landslip event causing ponding u/s of station; flows bypassed through nearby canal. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).

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
1964
Station datum
47.9 mAOD
Flow record
1964–2024 · 60 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1963
Hydrometric area
27
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Colne at Colne Bridge flooding today?

The current level is 0.25m, which is within the typical range of 0.22 to 1.00m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Colne Bridge?

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.

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 Colne at Colne Bridge?

The typical range at this station is 0.22m to 1.00m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.00m 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 →