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0.59

Broken Scar

Tees
Tees catchment • Low Coniscliffe • Darlington • ID: F3501 • Level
(25m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 124 views

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Current Level
0.587 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.615 m
24h Min
0.584 m
Typical Range
0.54 - 2.50
m
Highest Recorded
3.28 m
31 Jan 1995
Since Jan 1982
Current level is 18% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.4 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.587 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.585 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.585 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.585 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.585 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.585 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.584 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.585 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.585 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.587 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.588 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.589 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.590 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.591 m
23 Aug 18:15 0.591 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 8 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.4 km away).

10flood warnings 0flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 9 Feb 2020River Tees at Croft

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2020 2 0
2015 4 0
2012 3 0
2011 1 0

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 Low Coniscliffe flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Broken Scar
  • Watercourse: River Tees
  • Nearest Town: Low Coniscliffe
  • County: Darlington
  • Coordinates: 54°31'5"N 1°36'5"W (54.517925, -1.601411)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Oct 1956
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: F3501
  • EA Gauge ID: F3501-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: Tees
  • Typical Range: 0.537 – 2.500 m
  • Drainage Area: 818 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.59 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:45)
  • 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

🌊 Fairly flashy Responds 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
0.35
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,178 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.5%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
390 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
439 m³/s
5 Dec 2015
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 18.6166.809.602.195% (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 32%Arable 12%Heath/scrub 49%Urban 1%Other 1%
Heath/scrub 40% → 49% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, public water supply.

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

Compound Crump profile weir with two low flow crests. Heavily influenced by reservoir storage, abstractions and discharges throughout the period of record.

More detail

The catchment

Predominantly upland catchment, headwaters draining the Pennines. Mainly Millstone Grit and Carboniferous Limestone (sandstone, shale and limestone facies), with the majority of the catchment overlain by superficial deposits of peat and Boulder Clay. Moorland and rough pasture give way to more intensive agriculture in the lower reaches. No known catchment changes.

The station

Compound Crump profile weir with total crest length of 63.9m. Two low-flow crests total 9.1m. Gauged ultrasonically from 2002 but this was abandoned in 2011 due to poor performance. D/s level measurement installed 2003. No changes to control since construction apart from fish pass (1992-1993) inserted in low flow weir. There have been bank breaches in the past, and updated modelling work in Jan 2024 indicates that the right bank overtops into the Cleasby washlands at around 3.2m stage. This means that only the very highest AMAX events are affected.

How it measures flow

Modular up to approx. 2.5m. Hydraulic modelling suggests up to 20% bypassing flow at > 100 year return period. Single peak flow rating applies across the period of record, extrapolated using hydraulic model. Flood Studies Report grade A1 for all except one occasion.

Flow regime

Significant export of water from direct supply reservoirs (six reservoirs with a total area of 180.7 sq.km totalling 22.1% of catchment) progressively influencing during record period (Selset 1960, Balderhead 1965, Cow Green 1970). Cow Green operation includes winter flood storage drawdown, and river regulation to support abstraction and statutory minimum flows. U/s abstraction for industry during 1960s subject to a minimum 5MGD passing weir; continued until Balderhead Reservoir completed. Significant export of water from direct supply and abstraction u/s. Some regulation from Cow Green Reservoir. Import from Tyne via Kielder Tunnel in exceptional drought years.

The flow record

Three AMAX events (Aug 1986, Jan 1995 and June 2000) have stage values within 1mm of one another as a result of overtopping; evidence suggests 2000 was the highest and may have been 25-30% higher. 1959 minimum may have been influenced by abstraction immediately u/s. New rating developed in September 2014 and applied from 1982 onwards, reduced flows for the highest AMAX events. Historic daily mean flow data from 1956 - 1981 has not been reprocessed. Drop in flows 03-16/05/2017 caused by draw down for essential maintenance at Cow Green Reservoir. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).

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
1956
Station datum
37.2 mAOD
Flow record
1956–2024 · 68 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1956
Hydrometric area
25
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Tees at Broken Scar flooding today?

The current level is 0.59m, which is within the typical range of 0.54 to 2.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Broken Scar?

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 Tees at Broken Scar?

The typical range at this station is 0.54m to 2.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 2.50m 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 →

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