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0.03

Gwills

Gannel
North Cornwall catchment • Gwills • Cornwall • ID: 49130 • Level
(32m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 147 views

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Current Level
0.034 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.040 m
24h Min
0.033 m
Typical Range
0.04 - 0.75
m
Highest Recorded
1.59 m
EA official record
1.51 in our data (since Dec 1969)
Current level is 2% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 5h
08 Oct 05:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.034 m
08 Oct 05:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.035 m
08 Oct 04:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.033 m
08 Oct 04:30 ▬ steady 0.034 m
08 Oct 03:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.034 m
08 Oct 03:30 ▬ steady 0.035 m
08 Oct 03:15 ▬ steady 0.035 m
08 Oct 03:00 ▬ steady 0.035 m
08 Oct 02:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.035 m
08 Oct 02:30 ▬ steady 0.034 m
08 Oct 02:15 ▬ steady 0.034 m
08 Oct 02:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.034 m
08 Oct 01:45 ▬ steady 0.035 m
08 Oct 01:30 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.035 m
08 Oct 01:15 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.033 m
08 Oct 01:00 ▲ +0.2 cm 0.035 m
08 Oct 00:45 ▼ -0.3 cm 0.033 m
08 Oct 00:30 ▲ +0.3 cm 0.036 m
08 Oct 00:15 ▼ -0.2 cm 0.033 m
08 Oct 00:00 0.035 m

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Gwills
  • Watercourse: River Gannel
  • Nearest Town: Gwills
  • County: Cornwall
  • Nearest reservoir: Blackpool Pit (16.2 km) · 79.5% full (as of 31 May 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°23'36"N 5°3'22"W (50.393206, -5.056217)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Dec 1969
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 49130
  • Also at this site: GWILLS (E44975, flow, reporting)
  • RLOI id: 3135 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 49130-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 1 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: North Cornwall
  • Typical Range: 0.044 – 0.746 m
  • Drainage Area: 41 km² upstream of this gauge
  • 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
  • EA Cross-check: 0.03 m (EA at 8 Oct 05:15)
  • Flow Archive: National River Flow Archive ↗

Geographic coordinates may reflect the access point for the gauge, and not the precise location in the watercourse that it is taking readings from.

Nearby Stations

Gauges connected to this river, and others nearby. A distance “by river” follows the river on the map; any other is in a straight line.

Nearby

At this site

💧 Storm overflows upstream of this gauge

None of the storm overflows FloodRadar holds is traced upstream of this gauge on the mapped river network. That is not the same as none: the map leaves out many small streams and culverts, so an overflow it cannot place may still drain here, and not every company publishes every overflow. Those nearby are listed below.

Nearby, connection not known

Within 6 km in a straight line, but the river map cannot say whether their water passes this gauge.

💧
South West Water · into Unnamed Ditch,trenance Lake(S) · 2.3 km away in a straight line · discharges to a loch, lake or reservoir
60 spills · 43 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into River Gannel · 2.4 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
74 spills · 92 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Fly Cellars Pscso/EO🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into Newquay Bay (C) · 3.7 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
2 spills · 1 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Crantock (Beach Road) SPS🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into Crantock Beach (C) · 4.2 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
5 spills · 5 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Fern Pit Pumping Station🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into River Gannel (S) · 4.4 km away in a straight line · discharges into a tidal reach, where the water moves both ways
7 spills · 6 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into Trib Of Porth Joke · 4.5 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
7 spills · 5 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Yellowsands Pumping Station🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into Atlantic Ocean (C) · 4.6 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
37 spills · 86 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Towan Head Pumping Station🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into Atlantic Ocean(T) · 4.6 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
33 spills · 120 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

3 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.

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 →

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2026.

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

How often this river runs high

In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 0.75 m on about 2 days. This year so far: 5 days.

2026 5 days so far
2025 2 days
2024 5 days
2023 1 day
2022 1 day
2021 1 day
2020 2 days
2019 1 day
2018 3 days
2017 2 days

Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2012 for the 4 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.6 km away).

1severe warning 25flood warnings 99flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 26 Jan 2026 — Bolingey Stream from Bolingey to Perranporth

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 2 0
2025 0 0 2
2024 0 4 8
2023 0 3 8
2022 0 1 4
2021 0 0 5
2020 0 3 15
2019 0 3 13
2018 0 1 9
2017 0 0 6
2016 0 4 15
2015 0 2 14
2013 0 1 0
2012 1 1 0

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 Gwills 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.

Catchment Character

🌊 Mixed response A 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
0.62
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,100 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +3% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.7%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
14.05 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
11.40 m³/s
24 Nov 2012 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.7382.320.4500.0925% (high)% of days exceeded95% (low)
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.
Land Cover (2023)
Woodland 7%Grassland 57%Arable 29%Heath/scrub 2%Urban 4%Other 1%
Arable 39% → 29% since 1990

Flow affected by: groundwater abstraction, effluent returns, industrial / agricultural abstraction.

Photos

Gauging-station photographs from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).

Photos © NRFA / UKCEH & the measuring authority — shown at web resolution. Full gallery on the NRFA ↗

About this gauge

Crump profile weir, non-modular at high flows. Troubled by accretion downstream of structure filling the fish pool.

More detail

The catchment

Moderately steep catchment having subdued response, draining calcareous slates and thin limestones of the lower Devonian. Land use is low-grade agriculture; pasture, mainly diary and mixed farming. No major changes to catchment.

The station

Crump profile weir, crest length 6m, wing walls 1.9m.

How it measures flow

Flood banks contain flow up to 2.78m; they may be treated as weirs for higher stages. Survey of wrack marks following the 2012 floods show that the weir was drowned at a stage of 1.558 m. Initial analysis suggests this drowning would reduce peak flows by approximately 20%. However insufficient gaugings are available to revise the existing empirical rating. As such the flow data at these levels must be treated with caution. Bypassing is unlikely at stages below structure full, although the valley inundates upstream of the road bridge. Insensitive at low flows. Troubled by accretion downstream of structure filling the fish pool. One peak flow rating applied across period of record. Weir known to be non-modular during 2012 floods, therefore drowning known to affect station at 1.558 m. No rating revision yet made due to a lack of gaugings. Downstream level sensor installed in August 2022 to inform the degree of non-modularity and a high flow rating review.

Flow regime

Natural catchment but mine drainage may affect low flows. Runoff influenced by groundwater abstraction/recharge. Industrial/agricultural abstractions and effluent returns have minimal impact.

The flow record

Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in September 2023 (WINFAP Files v12).

Descriptions from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH). NRFA station record ↗

Gauge Details

How this gauging station is built and how long it has measured (NRFA / UKCEH).

Gauge type
Crump weir
Operating since
1969
Station datum
8.8 mAOD
Flow record
1969–2024 · 55 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1969
Hydrometric area
49
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Gannel at Gwills flooding today?

The current level is 0.03m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Gwills?

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 Gannel at Gwills?

The typical range at this station is 0.04m to 0.75m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.75m 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

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:

Check any UK postcode’s flood risk →

🏠 Buying or renting around here? Get the Property Flood-Risk Report for any English postcode — official risk band, recorded floods, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →