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0.47

Middleton

Tees
Tees catchment • Middleton-In-Teesdale • County Durham • ID: F3505 • Level
(26m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 198 views

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Current Level
0.474 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.481 m
24h Min
0.474 m
Typical Range
0.37 - 1.80
m
Highest Recorded
3.19 m
EA official record
3.15 in our data (since Feb 1982)
Current level is 15% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:00 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.474 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.474 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.475 m
23 Aug 18:15 0.475 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2011 for the 1 flood area linked to this gauge (nearest 5.0 km away).

0flood warnings 115flood alerts

Most recent flood alert: 24 Mar 2026Upper River Tees

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 3
2025 0 13
2024 0 14
2023 0 11
2022 0 2
2021 0 2
2020 0 3
2019 0 9
2018 0 5
2017 0 9
2016 0 7
2015 0 10
2014 0 4
2013 0 13
2012 0 9
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 Middleton-In-Teesdale flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Station Reference: F3505
  • EA Gauge ID: F3505-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: 0.368 – 1.800 m
  • Drainage Area: 242 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.47 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

🌊 Flashy Rain runs off fast — levels rise and fall sharply, often 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
0.28
flashy — rain runs off fast
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,585 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.1%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
215 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
208 m³/s
31 Jan 1995
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 9.1029.305.132.265% (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 1%Grassland 18%Heath/scrub 79%Other 1%
Grassland 44% → 18% since 1990

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

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

Velocity area station with informal flat V Crump weir. Flow regime influenced by Cow Green reservoir.

More detail

The catchment

Upland catchment draining from the Pennines. Geology: largely Carboniferous Limestone (sandstone, shale and limestone), some Millstone Grit, with extensive peat cover in headwaters, and boulder clay in valley. Land use: moorland and rough grazing. No known catchment changes.

The station

Velocity area station, with informal flat V Crump weir (31.8m wide) for low-flow control constructed in July 1972. Cableway. Replaced earlier station at Dent Bank (25002). Straight reach, gravel and rock bed on steep gradient.

How it measures flow

Limited modular range. Some bypassing at the back of the building at high flows; but a reasonable station for high flows. Measured level may be affected by draw-down and turbulence (due to rocky bed) at high flows. One peak flow rating applied across period of record. Well gauged to QMED and uniform cross section allows extrapolation to 3m.

Flow regime

Flows affected by Cow Green reservoir (24.4% of catchment) - influencing entire record through regulation for abstractions and minimum flow, storage attenuation and winter drawdown.

The flow record

Maintenance on weir winter 1995-1996 resulted in some artificially low flows. Step-change in flows June-September 2014 due to increased outflows from Cow Green Reservoir to flush and clean Cow Green weir (also seen at 25008 and 25023). The 71/72 AMAX event on 11/01/1972 before the post-weir rating is valid is rejected. 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
1971
Station datum
211.2 mAOD
Flow record
1971–2024 · 53 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1971
Hydrometric area
25
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Tees at Middleton flooding today?

The current level is 0.47m, which is within the typical range of 0.37 to 1.80m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Middleton?

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. Only about 8.9mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. 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 Middleton?

The typical range at this station is 0.37m to 1.80m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.80m 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 →