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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value:mASD
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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.
Beta. You'll be notified when a flood wave detected at an upstream gauge is forecast to reach this station, with an estimated arrival time. Accuracy improves as we verify more waves.
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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Last Level
0.252 mASD
⚠ 8h ago · may be out of date
24h Max
0.299 mASD
24h Min
0.246 mASD
Typical Range
0.26 - 0.45
mASD
Highest Recorded
0.96 mASD
EA official record
0.96 in our data (since Nov 2012)
Current level is 26% 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.
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.
91 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 2.6 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 83 report not discharging, and for 8 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Anglian Water · into Marley Gap Brook · 4.0 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
3 spills · 7 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
2 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 →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.45 m
on about 31 days.
This year so far: 29 days.
202629 days so far
202520 days
202480 days, 23 of them high · 23 high
202343 days
20223 days
202136 days, 10 of them high · 10 high
202042 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
201918 days
201810 days patchy data
20175 days
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out, so a year marked patchy may have run high more often than shown.
The darker part is days above 0.75 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2013 for the 18 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 0.7 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 Houghton flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 18 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
Is the River Great Ouse at Houghton 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 Houghton?
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.
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 4.0mm 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 Great Ouse at Houghton?
The typical range at this station is 0.26m to 0.45m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.45m 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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Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.
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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:
FloodRadar
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