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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.
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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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.272 mASD
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.323 mASD
24h Min
0.268 mASD
Typical Range
0.27 - 0.72
mASD
Highest Recorded
1.69 mASD
EA official record
1.71 in our data (since Aug 1992)
Current level is 16% 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. The nearest rain gauge has sent no readings in the last day, so Nimbus has no recent measured rain to work from here.
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.
WILLEN GS (E21509) — flow at this site
7 days
A separate gauge 21.7 m from this one at the same site, shown here for context.
Its readings are its own and are never merged with this page's.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 6 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.
9 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 12.5 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 9 report not discharging.
Anglian Water · into Tributary River Great Ouse · 5.4 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
15 spills · 30 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
4 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 0.72 m
on about 26 days.
This year so far: 15 days.
202615 days, 1 of them high · 1 highso far
202519 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
202478 days, 21 of them high · 21 high
202336 days
20226 days
202131 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
202034 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
201910 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
201815 days
20174 days
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 1.06 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2016 for the 7 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 2.1 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 Willen flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 7 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
0.46
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
666 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
6.6%
partly urbanised
Median Annual Flood
19.90 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
27.81 m³/s
5 Jan 2024 · 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.
Gauging a predominantly rural catchment with mixed bedrock, influenced by Leighton Buzzard and by Milton Keys in the lower part, high flows may be underestimated.
More detail
The catchment
Mixed bedrock geology, with Greensand and Oxford Clay and some Boulder Clay cover. Primarily a rural catchment of mixed agriculture, although Leighton Buzzard is in catchment, and southern suburbs of Milton Keynes are situated in lower valley just u/s of station.
The station
Flat V Crump profile weir (10m broad) and sluices. The present weir replaced a compound broad-crested weir (10m broad) with bypass channel in 1977 when the river was realigned.
How it measures flow
Radial lifting gate immediately u/s of weir diverts very high flows to adjacent balancing reservoir which empties d/s of weir. This may result in high flows being appreciably less than those seen upstream at Bletchley (33058). Annual floods do not bypass. FSR Grade A1 in 1971. Two ratings applied across period of record, the most recent is valid from July 1977 when weir rebuilt.
Flow regime
Runoff influenced by industrial/agricultural abstraction and effluent returns.
The flow record
Monthly maxima (HIFs) may be offset from daily mean flows during periods of gate movement. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).
Gauge type
Flat-V weir
Operating since
1962
Station datum
57.3 mAOD
Flow record
1962–2024 · 62 yrs · 95% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1961
Hydrometric area
33
Measured by
Environment Agency
Nearby Groundwater
Soil Moisture
Possible storm-overflow correlation
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ouzel at Willen flooding today?
The current level is 0.27m, which is within the typical range of 0.27 to 0.72m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Willen?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently steady. 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 Ouzel at Willen?
The typical range at this station is 0.27m to 0.72m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.72m 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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