Upper and Bedford Ouse catchment
• Willen • City of Milton Keynes • ID: E21511 • Level
(23m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 152 views
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Current Level
0.238 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.238 m
24h Min
0.237 m
Typical Range
0.27 - 0.72
m
Highest Recorded
1.71 m
28 Sep 2024
Since Aug 1992
Current level is 14% 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
Steady over 6h
24 Aug 00:30▬ steady0.238 m
24 Aug 00:15▬ steady0.238 m
24 Aug 00:00▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 23:45▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 23:30▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 23:15▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 23:00▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 22:45▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 21:30▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 21:15▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 21:00▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 20:45▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 20:30▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 20:15▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 20:00▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 19:45▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 19:30▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 19:15▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 19:00▬ steady0.238 m
23 Aug 18:450.238 m
Rainfall & Weather
Loading rainfall and weather data...
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.
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 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 Recorded Flow
27.81 m³/s
5 Jan 2024
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
🚽 Storm overflows on this river
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Ouzel at Willen flooding today?
The current level is 0.24m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very 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 7 days of measurements, 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 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:
