Ribble Douglas and Crossens catchment
• Lower Darwen • Blackburn with Darwen • ID: 713120 • Level
(21m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 108 views
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Current Level
0.472 m
▼ Easing
24h Max
0.687 m
24h Min
0.472 m
Typical Range
0.30 - 1.25
m
Highest Recorded
2.22 m
EA official record
2.37 in our data (since Jan 1976)
Current level is 21% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 8 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
19 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 3.0 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 17 report not discharging, and for 2 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
United Utilities · into Queens Park Culvert · 1.6 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
18 spills · 44 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
21 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.
25 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
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 Lower Darwen flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 14 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Fairly flashyResponds 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
0.42
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,383 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
14%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
28.95 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
26.20 m³/s
22 Jun 2012 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
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.
Velocity area station gauging catchment with steep headwaters and urbanised in lower reaches.
More detail
The catchment
Steep headwater catchment, particularly in the west, that drains north to the outskirts of Blackburn. Solid geology of Millstone Grit and Coal Measures, with intermittent Boulder Clay, hill peat and glacial gravel in main valley. Heavily urbanised at Darwen. No significant catchment changes.
The station
Open channel velocity area station opened in 1973. A vertical concrete wall forms the left bank with a high natural bank on the right.
How it measures flow
Fixed stone bed downstream provides some control. Bed rough, stony but stable, approach channel silty. No bypassing. No cableway. Multiple ratings applied across period of record derived from current meter gauging, with modelled top-end.
Flow regime
Small reservoirs in southwest. Station affected by non-continuous abstractions and releases upstream. Compensation flows are activated automatically.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Darwen at Ewood flooding today?
The current level is 0.47m, which is within the typical range of 0.30 to 1.25m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Ewood?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling slightly. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
What is a normal level for the River Darwen at Ewood?
The typical range at this station is 0.30m to 1.25m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.25m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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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:
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