← Back
⚠ No recent data · last reading 19h ago
0.05

Ponsanooth

Kennall
Fal and St Austell Streams catchment • Ponsanooth • Cornwall • ID: 48183 • Level
(19h ago) • 4 readings/hr • 154 views

Set water level alerts

Get notified about Ponsanooth — 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/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms

Last Level
0.047 m
⚠ 19h ago · may be out of date
24h Max
0.048 m
24h Min
0.047 m
Typical Range
0.04 - 0.49
m
Highest Recorded
0.83 m
EA official record
0.81 in our data (since Oct 1968)
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 5h
07 Oct 07:00 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 06:45 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 06:30 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 06:15 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 06:00 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 05:45 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 05:30 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 05:15 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 05:00 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 04:45 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 04:30 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 04:15 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 04:00 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 03:45 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 03:30 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 03:15 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 03:00 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 02:45 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 02:30 ▬ steady 0.047 m
07 Oct 02:15 0.047 m

Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: Ponsanooth
  • Watercourse: River Kennall
  • Nearest Town: Ponsanooth
  • County: Cornwall
  • Coordinates: 50°11'47"N 5°8'12"W (50.196411, -5.136703)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 1 Oct 1968
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
Technical details: references, datum, range, flow archive
  • Station Reference: 48183
  • RLOI id: 3385 (the EA's check-for-flooding station id)
  • EA Gauge ID: 48183-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: Fal and St Austell Streams
  • Typical Range: 0.044 – 0.490 m
  • Drainage Area: 27 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 5 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: 0.05 m (EA at 7 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.

Same river system, separate branch

Nearby

💧 Storm overflows upstream of this gauge

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.

1 storm overflow is traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 150 m away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 1 reports not discharging.

💧
South West Water · into River Kennall · 150 m upstream along the river
153 spills · 2,439 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

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 River Kennal · 220 m away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
126 spills · 2,646 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into Hicks Mill Stream · 3.1 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
141 spills · 2,673 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into Hicks Mill Stream · 3.1 km away in a straight line · not connected to this gauge on the river map
13 spills · 28 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into River Carnon Estuary(E) · 3.3 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
9 spills · 56 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Mylor Bridge WwTW🦪 Shellfish
South West Water · into Mylor Creek · 3.9 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
4 spills · 15 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Mylor Bridge WwTW🦪 Shellfish
South West Water · into Mylor Creek · 3.9 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
83 spills · 1,700 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
South West Water · into The Penryn River (E) · 4.1 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
75 spills · 857 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
💧
Mylor Bridge Pscso/EO🦪 Shellfish
South West Water · into Mylor Creek (E) · 4.6 km away in a straight line · discharges to the sea, an estuary or tidal water
38 spills · 391 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last

7 more within 6 km whose connection is not known.

3 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 →

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 0.49 m on about 2 days. This year so far: 8 days.

2026 8 days so far
2025 2 days
2024 5 days
2023 0 days
2022 0 days
2021 2 days
2020 2 days
2019 1 day
2018 2 days
2017 0 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 2014 for the 6 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 2.1 km away).

20flood warnings 22flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 2 Feb 2026 — Tidal Fal Estuary

Year by year
YearWarningsAlerts
2026 2 8
2025 3 6
2024 2 8
2023 1 0
2020 2 0
2018 2 0
2016 1 0
2014 7 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 Ponsanooth flood history.

Flood areas linked to this gauge

Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 6 areas 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
0.74
groundwater-fed — slow & steady
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,388 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +7% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
1.1%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
4.23 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
6.06 m³/s
1 Jan 2003 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 0.5231.650.3250.0845% (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 5%Grassland 70%Arable 11%Heath/scrub 6%Urban 4%Other 4%
Grassland 82% → 70% since 1990

Flow affected by: surface-water abstraction, reservoir influence, public water supply, groundwater abstraction, 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 with substantial modification of flows owing to exports to Stithians Reservoir.

More detail

The catchment

Moderate to steep catchment draining the Carnmenellis Granite, with small area of metamorphosed shales and grits. Granite well weathered, giving high baseflow. Responsive to heavy rainfall. No major changes to catchment.

The station

Crump profile weir with 4.88m crest length, wing walls and flood banks at height of 2.2m. Weir face retrofitted with Low Cost Baffles and vertically mounted eel tiles in April 2014. Station approximately 4 miles downstream of Stithians reservoir (Wendron Moor).

How it measures flow

Modular at all recorded stages. No drowning out. Verified by survey of wrack mark levels following 11/2012 flood, the highest on record. Gauged to 0.37m (2.5 cumecs) with good fit to theoretical rating, but insensitivity means low flows are susceptible to errors. Good theoretical peak flow rating curve applied across period of record. Confirmed by gaugings to 0.37m and all flows contained in bank.

Flow regime

Abstraction for public water supply. Some industrial usage produces unpredictable hydrographs. Substantial modification to flows owing to exports from Stithians Reservoir (4 miles upstream).

The flow record

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
Crump weir
Operating since
1968
Station datum
13.6 mAOD
Flow record
1968–2024 · 56 yrs · 100% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1968
Hydrometric area
48
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Kennall at Ponsanooth flooding today?

The current level is 0.05m, which is within the typical range of 0.04 to 0.49m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at Ponsanooth?

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 Kennall at Ponsanooth?

The typical range at this station is 0.04m to 0.49m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.49m 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.

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