← Back
0.18

Pillaton

Lynher
Tamar catchment • Pillaton • Cornwall • ID: 47136 • Level
(29m ago) • 4 readings/hr • 123 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Pillaton — tick as many as you like, they all share the notify settings below.

Unusual rise FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Drag the line on the chart, or type a value: m
Quick pick:

Each one is saved as its own alert — pause or remove them individually any time.

Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on EA/SEPA data and are best-efforts. Terms

Current Level
0.176 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.181 m
24h Min
0.176 m
Typical Range
0.22 - 1.50
m
Highest Recorded
2.44 m
EA official record
2.34 in our data (since Mar 1966)
Current level is 7% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Falling · -0.2 cm over 6h
24 Aug 00:00 ▬ steady 0.176 m
23 Aug 23:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.176 m
23 Aug 23:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 23:15 ▬ steady 0.176 m
23 Aug 23:00 ▬ steady 0.176 m
23 Aug 22:30 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.176 m
23 Aug 21:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 21:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.176 m
23 Aug 21:00 ▬ steady 0.177 m
23 Aug 20:45 ▬ steady 0.177 m
23 Aug 20:30 ▬ steady 0.177 m
23 Aug 20:15 ▬ steady 0.177 m
23 Aug 20:00 ▬ steady 0.177 m
23 Aug 19:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 19:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.178 m
23 Aug 19:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.177 m
23 Aug 19:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.178 m
23 Aug 18:45 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.179 m
23 Aug 18:30 ▬ steady 0.178 m
23 Aug 18:15 0.178 m

Rainfall & Weather

Loading rainfall and weather data...

Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 5 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 7.5 km away).

6flood warnings 231flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 9 Dec 2025River Seaton from the A38 to Seaton

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 0 5
2025 1 18
2024 0 17
2023 1 17
2022 0 4
2021 0 10
2020 1 16
2019 0 14
2018 0 7
2017 0 1
2016 0 15
2015 0 10
2014 1 18
2013 0 17
2012 2 26
2011 0 14
2010 0 4
2009 0 5
2008 0 8
2007 0 3
2006 0 2

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 Pillaton flood history.

Nearby Stations

Loading nearby stations...

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Pillaton
  • Watercourse: River Lynher
  • Nearest Town: Pillaton
  • County: Cornwall
  • Nearest reservoir: Siblyback (15.7 km) · 49.0% full (as of 16 Aug 2026)
  • Coordinates: 50°26'25"N 4°17'56"W (50.440154, -4.298799)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Mar 1966
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 47136
  • EA Gauge ID: 47136-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: Tamar
  • Typical Range: 0.218 – 1.500 m
  • Drainage Area: 136 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Available (m³/s) via EA Hydrology
  • EA Cross-check: 0.18 m (EA at 23 Aug 23:45)
  • 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.

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
0.55
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,477 mm/yr
1991–2020 · -1% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.8%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
46.30 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Recorded Flow
75.91 m³/s
18 Dec 2020
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 4.5715.322.730.6445% (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 12%Grassland 69%Arable 14%Heath/scrub 1%Urban 3%
Grassland 74% → 69% since 1990

Flow affected by: public water supply.

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

Velocity area station with cableway.

More detail

The catchment

Headwaters rise on Bodmin peat covered granite moorland; thence Devonian slates and volcanics; middle reach crosses a Carboniferous shale and sandstone inlier. Drift restricted to alluvium. Responsive upper catchment on Bodmin Moor. Generally low grade land gives rise to a variety of agriculture, grazing and forestry. No major catchment changes.

The station

Velocity area station, channel approx. 10.6m wide, cableway span 16.9m. Downstream shoal as control.

How it measures flow

Flows at site were formerly contained by flood banks on both banks (bankfull level only thought to have been exceeded once in record (12/1979)). However the left hand bank was breached in the 1990s and the left hand entrainment bank then removed so bypassing occurs more readily since 1990; floodplain flows are ungauged. Multiple peak flow ratings across period of record. Generally reasonable rating, well gauged through the range but limited confidence in upper range. Rating shift due to mobile bed and control. Rating reviewed in 2012 with improvements applied to historic record. Out-of-bank flows now calculated using model-derived rating. Low flow rating shifts regularly in response to changes in the downstream shoal. Analysis has shown that the high flow rating is similar through the record due to influence of downstream control at higher levels. Rating formed from a combination of high flow gaugings, 2D hydraulic modelling and observations of the 1979 flood (wrack marks and slope-area analysis). Separate high flow ratings prepared for the situation pre- and post-1990 with the left hand bank in place and removed. As a result rating now considered sound. Acoustic Doppler installed in 02/12 to confirm the rating at higher levels.

Flow regime

Imports from Sibleyback Reservoir exceed direct PWS abstraction, moderate net affect at low flows.

The flow record

Data pre-March 1966 are rejected as they have not been re-rated and are therefore uncertain - there also appears to be some truncation. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2021 (WINFAP Files v10).

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
Velocity–area
Operating since
1961
Station datum
8.5 mAOD
Flow record
1963–2024 · 61 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1961
Hydrometric area
47
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Lynher at Pillaton flooding today?

The current level is 0.18m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Pillaton?

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 Lynher at Pillaton?

The typical range at this station is 0.22m 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 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.

Embed this gauge on your website

Free live river-level widget — ideal for parish councils, angling clubs and local sites. Updates automatically.

Preview

📮 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, floods since 1946, warning history, river behaviour and nearby storm overflows. £19 one-off. Learn more →