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0.19

St Erth

Hayle
West Cornwall catchment • St Erth • Cornwall • ID: 48125 • Level
(48m ago) • 3 readings/hr • 157 views

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Current Level
0.192 m
▬ Steady
24h Max
0.233 m
24h Min
0.191 m
Typical Range
0.24 - 0.80
m
Highest Recorded
1.30 m
EA official record
A 1.70 reading (3 Jun 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 15% of this
🚽 Sewage overflows nearby

Recent Water Levels

🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day

Recent Readings

Steady over 8h
10 Sep 07:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 06:45 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 06:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 06:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 05:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 05:15 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 05:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 04:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 04:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 03:30 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 03:15 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 03:00 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.192 m
10 Sep 02:45 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.191 m
10 Sep 02:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.192 m
10 Sep 02:15 ▬ steady 0.191 m
10 Sep 01:15 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.191 m
10 Sep 01:00 ▬ steady 0.192 m
10 Sep 00:30 ▲ +0.1 cm 0.192 m
10 Sep 00:00 ▼ -0.1 cm 0.191 m
09 Sep 23:30 0.192 m

Rainfall & Weather

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Flood history near this gauge

Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 9 flood areas linked to this gauge (nearest 1.2 km away).

5severe warnings 160flood warnings 499flood alerts

Most recent flood warning: 29 Jan 2026River Hayle from Relubbus to St Erth

Year by year
YearSevereWarningsAlerts
2026 0 1 15
2025 0 4 16
2024 0 23 36
2023 0 11 21
2022 0 4 9
2021 0 2 14
2020 0 24 46
2019 0 15 30
2018 0 16 47
2017 0 0 8
2016 0 19 37
2015 0 8 22
2014 4 12 59
2013 0 0 12
2012 0 8 25
2011 0 0 14
2010 0 2 20
2009 0 0 10
2008 1 2 9
2007 0 1 17
2006 0 8 32

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 St Erth flood history.

Nearby Stations

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Station Details

  • Monitoring Station: St Erth
  • Watercourse: River Hayle
  • Nearest Town: St Erth
  • County: Cornwall
  • Coordinates: 50°9'25"N 5°25'59"W (50.156881, -5.432918)
  • Open in: Google Maps · Apple Maps (opens your maps app)
  • Date Opened: 3 Jan 1968
  • Status: Active
  • Station Type: River level station
  • Station Reference: 48125
  • EA Gauge ID: 48125-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: West Cornwall
  • Typical Range: 0.237 – 0.800 m
  • Drainage Area: 48 km² upstream of this gauge
  • Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 8 Sep (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: 0.19 m (EA at 10 Sep 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.

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
0.64
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
1,136 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +8% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
0.8%
largely rural
Median Annual Flood
4.48 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
8.62 m³/s
1 Jan 2003 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
mean 1.012.820.6960.2315% (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 8%Grassland 44%Arable 41%Heath/scrub 4%Urban 3%
Grassland 47% → 44% since 1990

Flow affected by: 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

Compound Crump weir with some issues from weed growth. Flows can be affected by mine drainage.

More detail

The catchment

Headwaters drain two moorland granite outcrops. Majority of the catchment is underlain by grits and shales of Devonian age, crossed by dyke swarms. Mining spoil in the floodplain. Generally low-grade agricultural use. Slow responding catchment with much storage. Historically some mining in catchment.

The station

Compound Crump profile weir. Width of middle crest of 1.22m and the two side crests of 1.675m each. Piers and wingwalls at a height of 1.83m with floodbanks at 3.8m. In 2023, eel pass tiles were installed along the left hand bank outer weir and fish bristles on the centre weir.

How it measures flow

High flows may go out of bank, but a flood channel ensures flow is contained. May drown at high flows. Weir was built in 1968 and superseded a velocity-area station for which it was not possible to derive a satisfactory rating curve because of variable weed growth. Weeds subsequently controlled by occasional cutting, but remained an issue. One peak flow rating valid across the Crump period of record. Rating confirmed by gaugings to 1.26 m. Max gauging during 12/2012 flood. Although weir drowned during this event existing rating was good. As this is the highest flood peak since the station opened, record can assumed to be good throughout.

Flow regime

Runoff influenced by groundwater abstraction/recharge. Abstraction for industrial/agricultural purposes. Mine drainage may moderately affect flows.

The flow record

Peak flows rejected pre-Crump (for 1957-1968) because variable weed growth made derivation of a satisfactory velocity-area rating impossible. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in October 2018 (WINFAP Files v7) and in August 2024 (WINFAP Files v13).

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
1957
Station datum
7.0 mAOD
Flow record
1957–2024 · 67 yrs · 86% complete
Peak-flow record
since 1957
Hydrometric area
49
Measured by
Environment Agency

Frequently asked questions

Is the River Hayle at St Erth flooding today?

The current level is 0.19m, which is below the typical range. Flooding is very unlikely at this level.

Is the river level rising or falling at St Erth?

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 Hayle at St Erth?

The typical range at this station is 0.24m to 0.80m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 0.80m 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.

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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 →