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⚠ No recent data · last reading 19h ago
0.15

Penberth

Penberth Stream
West Cornwall catchment • Penberth • Cornwall • ID: 48173 • Level
(19h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 141 views

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Last Level
0.148 m
⚠ 19h ago · may be out of date
24h Max
0.151 m
24h Min
0.146 m
Typical Range
0.19 - 0.68
m
Highest Recorded
0.97 m
EA official record
A 2.11 reading (15 Jun 2026) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Rising · +0.2 cm over 5h
09 Oct 07:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.148 m
09 Oct 06:45 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 06:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.147 m
09 Oct 06:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.148 m
09 Oct 06:00 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 05:45 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 05:30 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 05:15 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 05:00 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 04:45 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 04:30 ▬ steady 0.147 m
09 Oct 04:15 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.147 m
09 Oct 04:00 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 03:45 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 03:30 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 03:15 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 03:00 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 02:45 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 02:30 ▬ steady 0.146 m
09 Oct 02:15 0.146 m

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Penberth
  • Watercourse: Penberth Stream
  • Nearest Town: Penberth
  • County: Cornwall
  • Coordinates: 50°3'2"N 5°38'5"W (50.050669, -5.634771)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 10 Jan 1994
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 48173
  • RLOI id: 3339 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 48173-level-stage-i-15_min-m
  • Parameter: Level
  • Unit: m
  • Typical rise rate: 2 cm/hr (p95 sustained over 90 days)
  • Typical data delay: ~22 min (measured reading→publication lag)
  • Tidal: No
  • Lock / structure: No
  • Catchment Area: West Cornwall
  • Typical Range: 0.192 – 0.675 m
  • Drainage Area: 14 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 7 Oct (3 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.15 m (EA at 9 Oct 07:00)
  • 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

💧 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 Atlantic Ocean, Off Porthcurno · 1.5 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
24 spills · 394 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into Trevedran Stream · 2.3 km away in a straight line · its watercourse is not on the river map
36 spills · 312 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Sennen Cove Pumping Station🏊 Bathing water
South West Water · into Atlantic Ocean,off Sennen Cove · 6.0 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
21 spills · 224 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

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

This gauge rarely reaches its typical high of 0.68 m: 2 days since 2017. This year so far: 0 days.

2026 0 days so far
2025 0 days
2024 0 days
2023 1 day
2022 0 days
2021 0 days
2020 1 day
2019 0 days
2018 0 days
2017 0 days

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

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. This is the area linked to this gauge, nearest first.

Catchment Character

🌊 Groundwater-fed Slow and steady — fed largely by groundwater, so levels change gradually, not in sudden spikes.

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
0.71
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,007 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -4% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.4%
largely rural
Highest Daily Mean Flow
2.93 m³/s
1 Jan 2003 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.2240.7500.1240.0245% (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 11%Grassland 55%Arable 31%Heath/scrub 2%Urban 2%
Grassland 63% → 55% since 1990

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

Natural catchment located on the Lands End Peninsula.

More detail

The catchment

Granite Landsend intrusion with micro-granite. Upper reaches of the catchment flat plateau with a mix of moorland, bog, rough grazing, arable and daffodil agriculture. Very steep, narrow and incised in the lower catchment to the sea.

The station

A 90 degree Vee Notch thin plate weir flanked by bevelled concrete shoulders into which additional boards are set to control water levels in summer . Installed in 1993 to assess water resources on a remote, small natural catchment in response to an abstraction scheme that was never developed. Now used to indicate water resources status on the Lands End Peninsula.

How it measures flow

There is a significant drop to the downstream bed level which allows the weir to remain modular up to bankfull. The site is good for low flow estimation but can suffer from sediment encroachment behind the vee notch. The vee notch prior to July 2006 was installed back to front with unclear impact on the data. High flows are reasonable to bankfull at 0.7m. Gauged to 58% of QMed. 2 ratings cover the por. Boards-in during the summer months and Boards-out during the winter months.

Flow regime

No licenced abstractions or discharges in the catchment. Pronounced diurnal trace manifests in the data during the summer months. Boards in during the summer to back up the water and fill an on-line pond. No impact on the flow record as the pond returns water immediately upstream of the weir.

The flow record

Evidence of bypassing during 2 exceptionally high flows of 24/25 November 2012 and 1 January 2003. Flows under-estimated for these events which were above a stage of 0.9m and a flow of 5 cumecs.

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
Gauging structure
Operating since
1993
Station datum
12.0 mAOD
Flow record
1993–2024 · 31 yrs · 100% complete
Hydrometric area
49
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the Penberth Stream at Penberth flooding today?

The current level is 0.15m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Penberth?

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 Penberth Stream at Penberth?

The typical range at this station is 0.19m to 0.68m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.68m 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:

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 →