Fal and St Austell Streams catchment
• Grampound Road • Cornwall • ID: 48127 • Level
(35m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 131 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
0.237 m
▲ Rising slightly
24h Max
0.237 m
24h Min
0.193 m
Typical Range
0.17 - 1.50
m
Highest Recorded
1.72 m
EA official record
1.67 in our data (since Jan 1998)
Current level is 14% 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.
7 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 500 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 7 report not discharging.
South West Water · into Stream (S) · 4.8 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
6 spills · 3 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 →
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 Grampound Road flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 4 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 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
0.52
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,320 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
2.0%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
10.09 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
15.20 m³/s
22 Dec 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 open channel flood warning gauge on channel with remarkably stable cross section.
More detail
The catchment
The north of the catchment consists of the St. Austell granite intrusion. The southern portion of this granite has undergone extreme weathering and the resultant china clays are extensively mined. The Devonian sediments within the catchment consist of the fossiliferous slates of the Meadfoot Beds south of the St. Austell granite, the interbedded grey slate and light brown sandstone of the Grampound Grits and over the majority of the southern section, the slates and sandstones of the Veryan, Portscatho, Falmouth and Mylor Series. As a result of this impermeable geology there is a ready response to rainfall. No major changes to catchment.
The station
Open channel flood warning gauge.
How it measures flow
Channel section shown to have remarkably stable cross section so good confidence in derived rating and flow data (Gauged to within 80% of QMED). One peak flow rating across period of record. Rated by gaugings.
Flow regime
Extensive china clay mining and historical metalliferous mining in a large part of the catchment. Apart from that the catchment is predominately rural.
The flow record
Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2020 (WINFAP Files v9).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Fal at Trenowth flooding today?
The current level is 0.24m, which is within the typical range of 0.17 to 1.50m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Trenowth?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently rising 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 Fal at Trenowth?
The typical range at this station is 0.17m to 1.50m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.50m 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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16 Jan 2007 Looking downstream. SG = 0.778m, Q = 5.87 cumecs. China clay fines in water.
16 Jan 2007 Looking across measuring section. SG = 0.778m, Q = 5.87 cumecs. China clay fines in water.