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0.25

Roxton

Great Ouse
Upper and Bedford Ouse catchment • Roxton • Bedford • ID: E21657 • Level
(22m ago) • 1 reading/hr • 125 views

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Current Level
0.254 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.254 m
24h Min
0.242 m
Typical Range
0.27 - 1.04
m
Highest Recorded
2.24 m
EA official record
2.22 in our data (since Oct 1979)
Current level is 11% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 6h
23 Aug 22:45 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▬ steady 0.254 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 ▬ steady 0.254 m
23 Aug 18:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.254 m
23 Aug 18:00 ▬ steady 0.253 m
23 Aug 17:45 ▬ steady 0.253 m
23 Aug 17:30 ▬ steady 0.253 m
23 Aug 17:15 ▬ steady 0.253 m
23 Aug 17:00 0.253 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2016 for the 12 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.6 km away).

27flood warnings 71flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 16 Feb 2026Areas close to the River Great Ouse at Wyboston, Eaton Socon, Eynesbury, Eaton Ford, and St Neots

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 2 6
2025 1 6
2024 19 39
2023 0 7
2021 2 7
2020 3 2
2019 0 2
2018 0 1
2016 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 Roxton flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Roxton
  • Watercourse: River Great Ouse
  • Nearest Town: Roxton
  • County: Bedford
  • Nearest reservoir: Grafham (14.9 km) · 69.9% full (as of 17 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 52°9'58"N 0°18'33"W (52.166195, -0.309298)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Oct 1979
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: E21657
  • EA Gauge ID: E21657-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: Upper and Bedford Ouse
  • Typical Range: 0.267 – 1.040 m
  • Drainage Area: 1,660 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.25 m (EA at 23 Aug 22:15)
  • 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

🌊 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
0.45
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
664 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
3.9%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
76.60 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
217 m³/s
27 Sep 2024
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 11.7542.306.472.205% (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 37%Arable 44%Urban 11%Other 1%
Arable 53% → 44% since 1990

Flow affected by: public water supply, groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, 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

Flat V Crump profile weir gauging a mixed land use catchment, mixed geology and with some artificial influences.

More detail

The catchment

Mixed geology, including significant Clay and Greensand fractions, with about half of the catchment covered with Boulder Clay. Predominantly agricultural with substantial urban development (Milton Keynes and Bedford).

The station

Flat V Crump profile weir (26m broad) with downstream recorder, situated immediately u/s of confluence with R. Ivel. Use in preference to Bedford (33002) if possible.

How it measures flow

Drowns at very high flows (e.g. Easter Floods 1998), is influenced by timing of flood peak on R. Ivel, and can spill on rare occasions. Adjacent lock acts as an overspill in flood conditions. There is great uncertainty when levels go above 1.8m above crest. A single rating applied across period of record, however, there are multiple ratings that have been used in its history. Includes floodplain and non-modular flow. Assumes lock shut.

Flow regime

Regime influenced by groundwater abstraction/recharge. Some effluent returns. Significant surface water and gw abstractions for PWS, industry and agriculture. One of 3 stations used to calculate Offord flows to determine abstraction regime at Grafham Water.

The flow record

The POR maximum flow in April 1998 was extrapolated and subject to bypassing but thought to be a reasonable estimate in a contemporary report by WS Atkins. POR reprocessed in 2018, changes mainly in 2010 to 2013. 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
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1972
Station datum
15.7 mAOD
Flow record
1972–2024 · 52 yrs · 99% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1972
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Great Ouse at Roxton flooding today?

The current level is 0.25m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Roxton?

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 Great Ouse at Roxton?

The typical range at this station is 0.27m to 1.04m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.04m 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 →