Cam and Ely Ouse (Including South Level) catchment
• Babraham • Cambridgeshire • ID: E21005 • Level
(22m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 109 views
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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
0.058 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.059 m
24h Min
0.052 m
Typical Range
0.04 - 0.24
m
Highest Recorded
1.10 m
EA official record
0.70 in our data (since Jan 1979)
Current level is 5% of this
🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. Shown with its calibrated 10–90% confidence band. 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.
Long Term
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
—
Consecutive rainy days0 → 10+
Days Above Normal
This year vs 5-year monthly range
Recent Readings
Rising · +0.6 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▲ +0.1 cm0.058 m
24 Aug 00:15▬ steady0.057 m
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.057 m
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.057 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.057 m
23 Aug 23:15▲ +0.1 cm0.057 m
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.056 m
23 Aug 22:45▲ +0.1 cm0.056 m
23 Aug 21:30▲ +0.1 cm0.055 m
23 Aug 21:15▼ -0.1 cm0.054 m
23 Aug 21:00▲ +0.1 cm0.055 m
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.054 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.054 m
23 Aug 20:15▲ +0.1 cm0.054 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.053 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.053 m
23 Aug 19:30▲ +0.1 cm0.053 m
23 Aug 19:15▼ -0.1 cm0.052 m
23 Aug 19:00▲ +0.1 cm0.053 m
23 Aug 18:450.052 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2013 for the 4 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 3.9 km away).
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 Babraham flood history.
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 responseA 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
0.64
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
608 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.2%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
3.97 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
11.80 m³/s
21 Oct 2001
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.
Structure gauging a Chalk catchment with some superficial deposits, predominantly arable land use, and significant artificial influences.
More detail
The catchment
Chalk catchment with superficial deposits in headwater areas. Predominantly arable land use.
The station
Triangular profile Flat V weir, 8.3m broad; constructed on an old brick weir. Height of wing walls above crest - 0.6m. Also called Babraham Hall.
How it measures flow
The station is drowned and bypassed at high flows. Current rating accounts for out of bank flow. However, from 12.94cumecs (0.95m) floodplain flow is over a wide area with great uncertainty in flows, and no gaugings above 0.4m to verify rating. Two ratings applied across period of record, the most recent is valid from January 1979. Part of the Lodes-Granta groundwater support scheme, which triggers at 26 l/s to maintain flow.
Flow regime
Regime influenced by gw abstraction/recharge. Significant gw abstractions for PWS and for industrial/agricultural uses. Runoff increased by effluent returns.
The flow record
The POR maximum flow in Oct 2001 derived from peak flow measurements as 20.41 cumecs, but this is subject to considerable uncertainty - high proportion of overbank flows. Water year 1996/1997 rejected due to low confidence on whether AMAX occurred during a missing data period. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1976
Station datum
23.2 mAOD
Flow record
1963–2024 · 61 yrs · 86% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1976
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Granta at Babraham flooding today?
The current level is 0.06m, which is within the typical range of 0.04 to 0.24m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Babraham?
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 Granta at Babraham?
The typical range at this station is 0.04m to 0.24m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.24m 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:
7 Jun 1994 Structure viewed from downstream
1983 Downstream view of structure
1983 Downstream view of structure
1983 Weir crest from left bank
1983 Upstream view from gauging station
